Essay on Analyzing Plot And Setting In English Literature LA

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Analyzing Plot and Setting in English Literature
The Lesson Activities will help you meet these educational goals:
21st Century Skills—You will use critical thinking and communicate effectively.

Directions
Please save this document before you begin working on the assignment. Type your answers directly in the document. _________________________________________________________________________

Self-Checked Activities

Read the instructions for the following activities and type in your responses. Click the link to the Student Answer Sheet at the end of the lesson. Use the answers or sample responses to evaluate your own work.

1. Elements of Plot
Choose one of The Canterbury Tales and read both the tale and its prologue. Or you can review a tale (other than “The Knight’s Tale”) that you have already read. Then use the plot diagram to identify the key elements of the plot.

Type your response in the text boxes of the plot diagram:

How did you do? Check a box below.  Nailed It!—I included all of the same ideas as the model response on the Student Answer Sheet.  Halfway There—I included most of the ideas in the model response on the Student Answer Sheet.

 Not Great—I did not include any of the ideas in the model response on the Student Answer Sheet.

Teacher-Graded Activities

Write a response for each of the following activities. Check the Evaluation section at the end of this document to make sure you have met the expected criteria for the assignment. When you have finished, submit your work to your teacher.

2. Identifying Conflicts
Think about the conflicts that arose in the tale that you chose for Activity 1. Identify any and all of the conflicts that are present in the tale and explain how they are both developed and resolved.

From the beginning, the wife launches into a defense of marriage against those who might condemn her for having been married five times. This diverts her from her purpose. The root of this conflict is the Wife herself with her mind having a tendency to wander. The conflict keeps recurring throughout the Prologue; when the wife begins to describe her forth husband, for example, she becomes sidetrack by the thought of her youthful “jolitee.”
The conflict is one that continues in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue. Because the wife often diverges from her stated goal because certain topics remind her of other things she wants to say. At some point, after describing how she snagged her fifth husband, the Wife then asks, “But now sire, lat me see what I shall seen? Ah! By God. I have my tale ageyn.” The wife herself is her own worst enemy, when it comes to getting to the point quickly.

3. Setting and Time Frame
a. Think about the tale you chose. What is its setting and time frame? How would the story be different if it had the same setting and time frame as the pilgrimage? Use as many details as possible to describe the setting and time frame.

The Wife of Bath’s Prologue is a part of the story of The Canterbury Tales, meaning that it’s a part of the action that occurs among the characters, between the tales that they tell. This means that the Wife’s Prologue takes place on the pilgrimage between London and Canterbury. Because the Wife narrates numerous flashbacks, however, the settings of her Prologue actually shifts in time and place from the pilgrimage to the sites and times of the Wife’s previous marriages.

b. Write a summary of the tale you chose in a more modern setting with a different time frame. After you have completed your summary, explain how the meaning of the story has changed because of the change in setting and time frame.

Before the Wife begins her tale, she shares information about her life and her experiences in a prologue. The Wife of Bath begins her lengthy prologue by announcing that she has always followed the rule of experience rather than authority. Having already had five husbands "at the church door," she has experience enough to make her an expert. She