Describe the Anglo-Saxon Culture.
Discuss how the poem The Wanderer combines pagan and Christian values.
What is the importance of "wyrd" in The Wanderer? How does it differ from Christian belief?
Is there a symbolic connection between The Dream of the Rood and The Wanderer? If so, please explain.
Discuss the differences between the view of women during this time period and how women are portrayed in the works of Chaucer and Margery Kempe.
Compare and contrast the interactions and relationships of men and women from the early Medieval period to those of the later "Arthurian" period.
Compare and contrast the similarities and differences between the Wife of Bath and Marjory Kempe. Also discuss how people probably viewed each woman during the time of the story and how we would view each woman in the present day.
Explain how some of the authors we have studied use storytelling to justify the writing of fictional literature. Give examples.
Explain how the current events of the time impacted some of the stories we read. Include the way women were looked upon and the political situations going on. Give at least two examples.
Discuss how Chaucer uses the word "worthy" to describe characters such as the Knight and the Wife of Bath.
Discuss how the Wife of Bath is the first round character in Chaucer’s tales and how she does not fit the role of a traditional woman in medieval times.
Compare the knight’s actions from The Wife of Bath’s Tale to the romance ideal of how a knight is supposed to act towards a lady.
Discuss the importance of Chaucer's artistic decision to retain morally judgemental distance from his characters in The Miller's Tale, The Wife of Bath's Tale, and The Pardoner's Tale? How does this add to narrative voice, character depth, etc.?
Compare the romance used by Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales to that used by Malory in Le Morte Darthur between Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere. How are they similar, how different?
Compare and contrast The Wife of Bath and Allison in their separate roles in society as well as their similar characteristics and beliefs.
Compare the characters of Allison and the Wife of Bath from Canterbury Tales. Also, discuss how these characters might have been recieved by Chaucer's audience and what impact they have on us today.
Was King Arthur a real king? If not then what in history made us question this?
Discuss the effect of King Arthur in British literature and on the royal families of England.
Why was the myth of King Arthur so easily accepted?
Discuss how characters from Lanval and Le Morte Darthur have their actions and characteristics defined by literary genres such as Chronicle, Mirror for Magistrates and Romance.
How does Marie de France show the empowering of medieval women in Lanval?
Compare the assumed life and times of Sir Thomas Malory to the events of his writings from Morte Darthur. Make sure that you can tie together the symbolic meanings between the two.
What does Le Morte Darthur tell you about Thomas Malory and how he relates to society.
Compare and contrast the differences in loyalty in poems like The Wanderer, The Dream of the Rood, and even The Wife's Lament with the the idea of loyalty in Le Morte Darthur. Also, how much did the time that these authors wrote in affect their ideas of loyalty.
In Sir Thomas Malory's Morte Darthur, a recurring theme is the importance of maintaining love and loyalty. Explain how this theme relates to or contrasts that of The Wife's Lament.