Today, Andrew and I discussed and took notes on the following character archetypes: the sage, the creator, the everyman, the ruler, the caregiver, the innocent and the jester. We brainstormed examples from literature and pop culture for each.

Having completed "The Nun's Priest's Tale" , I introduced the term exemplum , a story to illuminate a moral, and discussed the relationship between didactic literature and the exemplum in Chaucer. We then noted further examples of mock heroic parody in the text followed by an examination of the moral of the fable related in the tale. Joshua did well in extracting the morals of the fable and discussed the relationship between Chaucer's social critique of human nature and the moral of the fable. Last, we reviewed Joshua's homework . I provided suggestions for supporting conclusions with a textual quote and for distinguishing between characterization by the narrator and characterization based on words or actions of the character .

Today, Andrew and I continued studying the 12 character archetypes. Today we focused on the outlaw, the magician, and the explorer. We reviewed the hero and the lover. We discussed literature and pop culture examples of each.

We studied the mock heroic tone in "The Nun's Priest's Tale" by first going back and rereading a few passages of the heroic epic "Beowulf" noting the elevated ornate style. We then examined how Chaucer uses some of the same heroic allusions but to describe trivial events in the life of the farm animals who are characters in the fable thereby creating a parody or satiric effect. We discussed what the reading suggests about Chaucer's view of heroic epic tales and contrasted Chaucer's mock heroic diction with the diction of the heroic epic poem. Last, I reviewed Joshua's essay thesis and outline and provided instruction on how to compose a responsive thesis and how to draft an outline of evidence supporting the thesis.

Today, Andrew and I continued working on our "Archie the Archetype" story study of the hero's journey and identifying archetypes. We identified the 12 archetypes in the short story.

We addressed the contrasting literary "theories" of the poet's narrator and the narrator of "The Priest's Tale" in terms of realism and the didactic. I then introduced the term "parody", and we explored why "The Priest's Tale" ,a fable, is a parody of pedantic scholars, and vanity. Last, I discussed why Chaucer remains widely read by focusing on the narrative framework of "The Priest's Tale" which incorporates a story within a story within a story , or multiple narrators and points of view. I noted how this stylistically is akin to modern literature which adopts shifting points of view as a technique and makes this 1000 year old poem feel less obsolete.

Today, Andrew and I read through our Gilgamesh Hero's Journey diagram. We then moved onto study the 12 character archetypes, discussing their definitions, strengths, weaknesses, and writing down our own examples of each archetype from movies/literature.

We completed studying the prologue to the ""Tales" focusing on characterization and social criticism of church hypocrisy. Looking at the first person narrator's commentary, we then discussed the two literary theories espoused in the closing verses: realism vs the didactic. We noted the poet's apology for the realistic characters and language coupled with his explanation that only realism conveys "truth." Joshua does very well with the poem , and astutely suggested that the narrator's later self-deprecation as a person with "no wit" was a technique to soften the poem's harsh criticism of the church.

Today, Andrew and I plotted the stages of the Hero's Journey on a diagram and traced Gilgamesh's journey through the stages. We discussed characterization, archetypes and symbolism as they arose.

As we are approaching the end of the lengthy Prologue, we completed our outline and comparison of the epic poem "Beowulf " and the narrative poem ,"Canterbury Tales. " I addressed style, tone, subject matter, and diction. Joshua cited details from the poem evidencing the more realistic portrayals of the characters, and we noted Chaucer's non-judgmental attitude even toward the wanton and the corrupt. We last compared the good vs evil didactic of "Beowulf" with Chaucer's acceptance of the his characters' foibles before examining the character sketches from last night'f reading. In that regard, I introduced the concept of the foil as a technique of contrast.