1. Middle Ages British Lit

2. Unit Objectives and Skills
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL Analyze a case in which grasping a point of view requires distinguishing what is directly stated in a text from what is really meant (e.g., satire, sarcasm, irony, or understatement).
W Write informative /explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W12.3 Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, well-chosen details, and well-structured event sequences.
Inference (indirect characterization)
Irony
Satire
Tone

3. Lit Terms for the Unit
Tone – the emotion that the narrator/author feels in the text
EX: And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don’t know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn’t the best. We complained about it. So we’ve got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we’ve got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing.
Direct Characterization – when the text tells the reader directly what the looks/personality of the character is like.
EX: Oh no – the most sincere of men, the truest (here he was), the best
Indirect Characterization – when the character is described through the dialogue, appearance, and actions of not only the character, but reactions of other characters
EX: ‘Janie didn’t go in where Mrs Washburn was. She didn’t say anything to match up with Nanny’s gladness either. She just fell on a chair with her hips and sat there.

4. Lit Terms for the Unit
Satire - the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
EX: Love, noun. A temporary insanity curable by marriage.
Irony - In irony, words are used to show the opposite of the actual meaning. The three kinds of irony are:
Verbal irony - where what you mean to say is different from the words you use
EX: Looking at her son's messy room, Mom says, "Wow, you could win an award for cleanliness!"
Situational irony - compares what is expected to happen with what actually does happen
EX: There are roaches infesting the office of a pest control service.
Dramatic irony - uses a narrative to give the audience more information about the story than the character knows
EX: The audience knows that a killer is hiding in the closet, but the girl in the horror movie does not.

5. Historical Background
Middle Ages ( )
Oct 14, 1066 William the Conqueror defeats the Anglo-Saxon King and ends A-S rule
William mixed Norman and Anglo- Saxon laws and language to better rule
Normans established feudalism
King | God
Nobles | Clergy
Freemen – new middle class made up of merchants
Serfs – basically slaves
Feudal Society Caste System

6. Knights and Code of Chivalry
Trained from early age to military service
Trained at neighboring castles rather than home “fostering”
“dubbed” when training completed and give title of Sir
Loyalty, honor, and social codes upheld by knights
Swore oath of fealty to overlord
Code of Chivalry known as Courtly love
System of ideals that governed knights and gentlewomen
Never attach unarmed person or person of lesser rank except in self-defense
Nonsexual adoration of a particular lady (not the wife) as means of self-improvement
Wore lady’s colors into battle; wrote her poems/songs, used for inspiration
Romances genre based in code of chivalry

7. Great Happenings in Middle Ages
The Crusades (duh)
Medieval Church became more powerful than the King and corrupt
Monasteries were libraries and publishers of books – now why would this be important?
Black Death – reduced population by 1/3rd and effectively killed the caste system too.

8. The Four Humors – Understanding Personality
A traditional theory of physiology in which the state of health--and by extension the state of mind, or character--depended upon a balance among the four elemental fluids: blood, yellow bile, phlegm, and black bile. In the human body, the interaction of the four humors explained differences of age, gender, emotions, and disposition. The influence of the humors changed with the seasons and times of day and with the human life span. Heat stimulated action, cold depressed it. The young warrior’s choler gave him courage but phlegm produced cowards. Youth was hot and moist, age cold and dry. Men as a sex were hotter and drier than women.

9. The Four Humors – Understanding Personality
BLOOD
YELLOW BILE
PHLEGM
BLACK BILE
Air
Fire
Water
Earth
hot and moist
hot and dry
cold and moist
cold and dry
"SANGUINE"
"CHOLERIC"
"PHLEGMATIC"
"MELANCHOLIC"
(amorous, happy, generous)
(violent, vengeful)
(dull, pale, cowardly)
(gluttonous, lazy, sentimental)

10. Chaucer and The Canterbury Tales
Written by Geoffrey Chaucer to create a snapshot of life in the Middle Ages
Used characterization to represent the range of medieval society (feudal system, church, and city)
Uses satire with each pilgrim to expose the corruption of Medieval society.
Context – 29 pilgrims gather to take a pilgrimage to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Tomas Beckett
Direct Characterization – writer directly states what the character is like
Indirect Characterization – writer describes how the character looks and dresses; character revealed through words, thoughts, feelings, actions, and reactions from other characters
Satire – literary work holding up human vice to ridicule or scorn using wit, irony, or sarcasm to expose and discredit the vice.
Subtle and embedded in the text