The Times-Journal

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 | DeKalb County's Oldest Newspaper

Classifieds | Jobs | Homes | Autos

Students take pilgrimage of ‘Canterbury Tales

By Jared Felkins
The Times-Journal

Published November 23, 2009

Just as the cast of unlikely characters set off for pilgrimage in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales in the 14th Century, students in Starla Finch’s senior English class at Sylvania School completed a journey Friday to study the literary work.

The students started by reading “The Prologue” and then moved on to read “The Wife of Bathe’s Tale” and “The Pardoner’s Tale” – two of Chaucer’s 24 tales in all. It’s the fourth year Finch’s classes have gone on the literary quest.

“When we get through the readings, we celebrate it with a banquet to signify our journey through the tales just as the characters did with their pilgrimage to Canterbury and back,” Finch said. “All the students sign up with food. We started it with food that you might see in that time and students ate with their hands. That limited what could be brought, so we have since opened it up to all kinds of food.”

The banquet featured the students dressing up like their favorite characters from the tales.

“We had monks, summoners and other characters,” Finch said. “Some modernize it like the doctor, and students dress up like today’s doctors. We have artisans and a lawyer, so they have a lot of different characters to choose from.

“That’s what they remember. They remember the colorful characters and dressing up like them. Of course, they enjoy the food.”

And the students agreed.

“It was that much more memorable to dress up like the characters,” said Andrea Clifton, who attended the banquet dressed as the Squire. “It’s almost like becoming the character. You become closer to the story.”

At the banquet, Elizabeth Wootten more resembled that of a pirate than the Shipman, who was known for stealing wine from the ship’s captain.

“It makes it more memorable,” Wootten said. “We will remember pieces of the story for a long time because we were part of the story.”

Finch said both the study of the tales and the banquet has sparked an interest in reading even more of them.

“When we finished the tales, the students definitely understood irony and satire and enjoyed the humor throughout all of it,” Finch said. “ Now that we are done, a lot of the students have wanted to read more of the tales.”

Share | Save | Mail | Print

Photo Reprints
Purchase select photographs from local games and events. New from The Times-Journal and The Times-Journal.

Business Card Directory

Your Fort Payne and DeKalb County reference guide, featuring accounting, automotive, banks, insurance, restaurants and much more!

Subscription Services: Circulation | Home Delivery | Back Issues | Vacation Stops | Newspapers In Education

The Fort Payne Times-Journal | Publisher: J.D. Davidson

811 Greenhill Blvd.NW, Fort Payne, Alabama 35967 | Tel: 256-845-2550 | Email