Canterbury+Tales

MIDDLE ENGLISH NOTES (con't...)
 * mid Eng. began with Norman Invasion of 1066 CE; conquering king William only spoke French, so upper class spoke French and lower class spoke English
 * after plague and new King Edward 1st, 1362 = English declared as official spoken language

CHARACTERISTICS THAT CHANGED DEFINE:
 * Old Eng infinitives ended with -an; Mid Eng. dropped -an, added "to" before verbs
 * third person pronouns (they, them, their) were borrowed from Scandinavian
 * adverb ending -lic became -ly
 * some pronounced consonants became silent (especially "w" in words such as "two," "sword," & "answer")
 * physiognomy = how the facial/physical features help to determine personality characteristics
 * irony
 * satire
 * characterization

THE GODS' TEMPLES
 * Venus - goddess of love (represents not only true love, but also unrequited love, lasciviousness, selfish love, etc.)
 * Mars - god of war (represents not only justified war, but also violence in general, murder, suicide, etc.)
 * Diana - goddess of celebacy (symbolized by woman dying in childbirth, as well as supporting privacy)

THE TALEs in-depth...
 * power relationships between males and females (i.e. Hippolyta was queen of the Amazons [female-centered society], taken/forced to be wife of Theseus)
 * what each tale's subject/themes say about the teller
 * social and historical importance of each tale and each pilgrim