Hende Nicholas: Trickter Stereotypes For College Students In The Middle Ages

Stereotype plays a big part in today’s society. In the Memoir “The Glass Castle” by Jeannette Walls, others would easily misjudge Jeannette’s family just by their image and the way they lived their life. Although they lived the way they did the walls family had much potential and were very well educated in their own ways. People need to live by the quote “Never judge a book by its cover” because you never know who they are until you meet them.

In "To the University of Cambridge in New England," Wheatley draws a clear line between herself and the students present. Stating

In the novel, Le Morte d’Arthur by Thomas Malory, Malory recounts the popular tale of King Arthur and the noble knights of the round table. However, Malory mirrored the Arthurian court in disposition to the current government by analyzing his ties to politics and life experiences. England encountered many difficulties during the 1500s and 1600s, for it was constantly in war while fearing its own revolution within its own government. Sir Thomas Malory lived dangerously as he constantly participated in heinous crimes, though being a knight of chivalry, however, the experiences of being a low-life citizen as well as an understanding of the government led Malory to write his own version of the Arthurian legend during imprisonment. Malory altered the legend to exhibit that chivalry contradicts with courtly love, where it will eventually lead to shame and loss of loyalty through his own experiences.

“This Miller has done me great mischief, and I will not leave without first finding his daughter” (The Reeve). In the end, the students sleep with the Miller’s wife and daughter, and the Miller ends up beaten and losing many of his possessions, but the story doesn’t justify the students, the stealing, or even the greed itself. Chaucer leaves it up to the readers to make their own conclusions.

·   "Why should he study and drive himself crazy, always poring over a book in his cloister, or work and slave with his hands as St. Augustine orders?" (Chaucer Pg. 4-Line 21)

Text H is a printed out version of ‘A Charge’, a speech made by the members of University of Philadelphia for the first students to graduate in 1757. Immediately we will be expecting to see a higher use of lexis since the speech is dedicated to the first students to graduate from the university, implying that they have a higher education and are capable of understanding complex language. Since the speech was made from the eighteenth century, we will be expected to see some archaic spellings and signs of language which would be more ancient since it was written at that time. Over the years, due to standardisation language has developed a lot, which shows that some of the language used in this text will be unfamiliar to what we see in today’s

Superstitions and Witches in the Elizabethan Era In 2017, most people are familiar with the thought of witches. Witches today are often portrayed as old ladies with scraggly hair, worts, and a pointy nose. Little do we know that witches didn’t actually look like that. People today are also familiar with superstitions. A very well known superstition is about spiders being good luck.

In the 14th century, class distinction was of great importance. The class to which one belonged determined the clothes one was allowed to wear, the color of that clothing and even behavior. In Geoffrey Chaucer's General Prologue and The Canterbury Tales , we can find any number of characters with these behavior distinctions if we examine them. The Knight, for example, is described as a worthy man of "trouthe and honour, freedom and curtesie" (I, 46). He is of a noble rank, and therefore his behavior is one of good reputation (honour). Conversely, Both the descriptions of the Reeve and the Miller in the General Prologue are quite unflattering; their verbal cutting into each other's tales demonstrates the stereotypical "churlish"

As we’ve talked about in class before, there were different social classes in Europe in the past. The social classes were determined based on job standings, amount of money one had, location of home and the part of town that one lived in, and ultimately appearance of oneself. If you were pale with nice clothing it was assumed you were very wealthy and did not have to work. While if your skin was tan from the sun and your clothes were dirty it was assumed you were poor. Is this a form of what we now call stereotyping? I would say yes, the people judged and grouped people based on their appearance and where they lived. This then led to the different estates or hierarchy that we learn about in Europe.

During the Middle Ages, England was a nation in social chaos. Deception of every kind was rampart throughout the lands. Many people felt that there was a great need for moral improvement in society. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales he clearly brings to light his thoughts and concerns of “ethical cleansing.” No tale more fully expresses this idea than that of “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale.”

Written by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the fourteenth century, The Canterbury Tales and more specifically it’s prologue, shed a great deal of light on the rising middle class in (fourteenth century) England. Despite the fact that some readers may not know a lot about the time period today, Chaucer’s writing in the prologue elaborates on topics such as occupations, wealth, education, and political power. Scholar Barbara Nolan writes of the prologue, “it is more complex than most…It raises expectations in just the areas the handbooks propose, promising to take up important matters of natural and social order, moral character, and religion and outlining the organization the work will follow” (Nolan 154). In other words, while noting the

“hors”, when Symkyn “goth” to the “hors”- are used many times in The General Prologue (4062). A horse was a socioeconomic factor that distinguish between class and privilege. That is why certain characters in Chaucer’s tale owned elegant and well-maintained horses, to promote class in a materialistic approach. However, Adrienne C. Frie, notes that having a horse entailed reputation. It involved a class separation for those who “possessed them” and those who did not (Frie, 25). Frie continuously notes the power that having a horse involved, where even in the “Early Iron Age” horses allowed individuals to obtain “territorial control and notions of territory more generally” (Frie, 25).

In his description of other pilgrims, Chaucer points out how the lack of morality within the Church is echoed by the rest of society. Several pilgrims have non-religious reasons for going on the pilgrimage. The Wife of Bath, for instance, is looking for her sixth husband, hoping that “Som Cristen man shal wed me [her] anoon” (WBT 54). Many of the characters have little or no regard for others, but instead are focused only on their own desires. The Franklin is so gluttonous that “It snewed [snows] in his hous of mete and drinke, / Of alle daintees that men coude thinke” (GP 347-8). Chaucer even suggests that the Sergeant at Law, a prominent figure in society, “seemed bisier than he was” (GP 324). The corruption of the Church has, according to Chaucer, affected the way individuals act. If the Church is immoral it is not surprising that much of society mirrors the Church’s immoral actions. The Parson cleverly describes the effect of a lack of morality in the leaders of society by comparing the corruption of individuals to the rusting of metals: “if gold ruste, what shal iren do? / For if a preest be foul, on whom we truste, / No wonder is a lewed man to ruste” (GP 502-4). Chaucer attacks not only the behaviour of the Church officials but also the immorality of the laypeople in Medieval society.

A true scholarly education was a luxury in the Medieval period. Those who lived within the peasantry, those who could not afford lessons or teachings on literacy and poetry did not have the same mentality, the same upbringing as the nobles who were presented with private tutors and higher, more comprehensive educations. The term education, however, involved more than merely books and poetry and commentaries on the Bible and sermons given by the church; education, as stated by Ronald Begley and Joseph Koterski in their book Medieval Education, also involved one’s upbringing, “the manner in which persons [were] raised and their character formed .” At the time, it shaped the social classes and molded society, both creating and furthering the divide between the nobility and laymen and –women who were not allowed the same opportunities as those born into a status of wealth and leisure. Medieval society was split into social classes that revolved around wealth and opportunity, and, more often than not, those who

From 1964 – 1965, Professor Riley-Smith taught in the department of Medieval History at St. Andrew’s College Cambridge as an Assistant Lecturer. He became a Full-time Lecturer in 1966 and worked there until 1972. From then until 1972 until 1978, Riley-Smith served on the History Faculty at the University of Cambridge and also during that time he was a Fellow