Recasting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 3

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

My resetting of the Canterbury Tales was Georgia Tech’s Britain Dining Hall so it is fitting the recasting would be of the Clerk as a Tech student. The new “Clerk” will be similar to Chaucer’s Clerk in that his appearance relating to his career/image will be the same, the Tech student’s tale will be a modernized adaptation of the Clerk’s Tale, and inevitably, their morals will be compared with Chaucer’s as well as our time. Just as the Chaucer’s Prologue describes the Clerk as quiet lonely man, my recasting will have the clerk as a very studious type. He will be poorly dressed, as most of his money went to buying the ridiculously priced books for his studies. When he opens his mouth, all will hear with uncompromising attention. The narrator of my story will ask the “new” Clerk to tell a story not of fraternity gossip or drunkenness but of true happiness.

The original tale starts with a nobleman, Walter, who untraditionally decides to pick his own wife, whom will be of any estate or class. He finds such a woman by the name of Griselde, while he was off hunting, whom was beautiful, charitable, and could pass as sure nobility. The two were married; Walter, still bothered by the town’s people’s doubts, after the birth of their daughter, Walter decided to test his wife’s love. He faked the baby’s death but instead sent it to live with his sister. Griselde mourned dearly, Walter soothed her with another child, whom Walter faked its death as well. Walter went as far to test his wife’s loyalty as to declare a necessity for a new wife. The new wedding, Walter asked, was to be planned all by Griselde. She fulfilled his wishes, but at her surprise when the day of the wedding came she was returned her children and Walter told him it was all a test. The Clerk explains the moral being all women should marry with this steadfast loyalty, but what Walter put Griselde through was over the top.

The messy Tech genius would begin his story with a rising Georgia Tech professor. Jonathan. He would choose his wife no matter what college she attended. At the “old fashioned hate” football game against UGA, the rising professor, Jonathan, met a hillbilly girl named Sally. He knew right away he was in love. His friends however, were doubtful of her worthiness. Jonathan tested her worthiness with three tests. First, he had his friend hit on her at a party and invite her to join him in a private room. Not knowing it was a test, Sally, slapped the man and exclaimed she was taken. For the second test, Jonathan took Sally on a date, but acted the exact opposite of his normal self. He spat on the ground, did not open doors for her, did not pay for anything, and was obnoxious during dinner. At the end of the night, she forgave him, for she knew he was acting different. The third and most extreme test of her faithfulness, Jonathan got his friend from School Board to offer Sally her dream job of teaching fourth graders under one condition, she must never see Jonathan again. She turned down the job and apologized to the School Board Director, her dream job was no match for spending the rest of her life with Jonathan. Jonathan was so happy with her success in all these tests he praised and confessed to Sally of his misbehavior. They lived happily ever after, and all of Britain was stunned with awe by the Tech genius’ story of loyalty and love.
Even though the Clerk and the recasting are centuries apart, their message is the same. In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, at the completion of his story, the Clerk exclaims the moral to his story is, all women should love unconditionally as Griselde, however, no one should test that love to the extent Walter did. The messy Tech genius’s story has the same moral, showing Chaucer’s writing is still pertinent today. Both stories, however, are very one sided. That is, they explain how women should love unconditionally, and how it is unjust for men to test this love to such an extreme. Even more so than in the fifteen hundreds, during Chaucer’s writing, is this moral incomplete. Perhaps a modernization of Chaucer’s idea would apply to both men and women. The story being that the women is prestigious, and she decides to marry a man of lower “class.”

The video incorporates the core of this essay, but presented in a way which the audience requires less attention and time. The video is just under three minutes, and includes audio stimulation. The essay goes farther in dept, on the description of the Tech student, the Clerk, Jonathan, and Walter, than the video. Both mediums, however, encompass the assignment’s goals independently.

Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics). New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2007. Print.
Lady Gaga. "Bad Romance." Rec. 25 Oct. 2009. Record Plant Studios. RedOne. CD.
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The Ring Goes South. Cond. Howard Shore. 2003. Http://en.wikipedia.org/. Web.

Stage 5 Resetting

My Resetting of the Canterbury Tales assignment went through many different drafts before coming to its final. I found it very helpful to have my peers help me decide which pictures to incorporate in the sideshow through the use of comments using blogger.com. My biggest problem, however, was not splitting my ideas up in paragraphs so I could go deeper into my discussion. I found that when posting a log text block on the internet is not pleasing to the human eye; splitting up my paper into paragraphs would have eased my reader to notice the flow change in my writing. When posting papers using blogger.com, new paragraphs are made by inserting < p >. For my next assignment, i will be sure to elaborate on my ideas by simply starting a new paragraph allowing myself room to discuss the topic.

Stage 2 Recasting (no video, stage 1 inadequate topic)

The Clerk
My resetting of the Canterbury Tales was Georgia Tech’s Britain Dining Hall so it is fitting the recasting would be of the Clerk as a Tech student. Just as the Chaucer’s Prologue describes the Clerk as quiet lonely man, my recasting will have the clerk as a very studious type. He will be poorly dressed, as most of his money went to buying the ridiculously priced books for his studies. The narrator of my story will ask him to tell a story not of fraternity gossip nor of drunkenness but of true happiness. The original story begins with a nobleman, Walter, who untraditionally decides to pick his own wife, whom will be of any estate or class. He finds such a woman by the name of Griselde who was beautiful, charitable, and could pass as sure nobility. The two were married, but after the birth of their daughter, Walter decided to test his wife’s love. He faked the baby’s death but instead sent it to live with his sister. Griselde mourned dearly, Walter soothed her with another child, whom Walter faked its death as well. Wlater went as far to test his wife’s loyalty as to declare a necessity for a new wife. The new wedding, Walter asked, was to be planned all by Griselde. She fulfilled his wishes, but at her surprise when the day of the wedding came she was returned her children and Walter told him it was all a test. The Clerk explains the moral being all women should marry with this steadfast loyalty, but what Walter put Griselde through was over the top. The messy Tech genius would begin his story with a rising Georgia Tech professor. Jonathan. He would choose his wife no matter what college she attended. At the “old fashioned hate” football game against UGA, the rising professor, Jonathan, met a hillbilly girl named Sally. He knew right away he was in love. His friends however, were doubtful of her worthiness. Jonathan tested her worthiness with three tests. The first, he had his friend hit on her at a party and invite her to join him in a private room. Not knowing it was a test, Sally, slapped the man and exclaimed she was taken. For the second test, Jonathan took Sally on a date, but acted the exact opposite of his normal self. He spat on the ground, did not open doors for her, did not pay for anything, and was obnoxious during dinner. At the end of the night, she forgave him, for she knew he was acting different. The third and most extreme test of her faithfulness, Jonathan got his friend from School Board to offer Sally her dream job of teaching fourth graders under one condition, she must never see Jonathan again. She turned down the job and apologized to the School Board Director, her dream job was no match for spending the rest of her life with Jonathan. Jonathan was so happy with her success in all these tests he praised and confessed to Sally of his misbehavior. They lived happily ever after, and all of Britain was stunned with awe by the Tech genius’ story of loyalty and love.

Stage 1 (Recasting)

I am thinking of doing the Wife of Bath's Tale, the knight however, will be a student who has been caught cheating. He must redeem his honor somehow. He meets the dean of students who asks him what teacher's ultimate goal is and why cheating is so wrong. He traveled to Britain, ( my resetting of the Tales), where he would contemplate and ask his friends over the matter. He finds his answer when he glances at the stain glassed window of Britain.


I plan to expand this video with the student meeting the dean of students, then eating in Britain with his freinds, he asks them the question and they say, "to pay the mortgage, "to fail their students for pleasure," but finally realizing the answer to the question when he looks at the stain glassed window. Teacher's Goal is preperate their students to better themselves and the wrold.

Resetting The Canterbury Tales: Stage 4

Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a timeless classic of about very distinct members of society resting all together in a tavern from their pilgrimage. As Chaucer made his stories a resetting of the Decameron, I tell my story, as a resetting of the Canterbury Tales, here in Georgia Tech. The story opens up with individuals of different social statuses, or castes, meeting in one place, a tavern, with a common goal, to travel to the shrine of Saint Becket. This would be the one place during medieval times one would find such a diverse crowd. What better setting is this than the Georgia Tech cafeteria, well known as Britain. Britain serves as a resetting of the Canterbury Tales for it serves as a resting place for the main purpose of Tech, allows diverse groups of students to meet together in one place, and serves as a reminder of purpose of attending Georgia Tech.Different groups of students meet together, in one place, ready to make their journey back to their studies, just as the citizens of the Canterbury Tales met to travel to the shrine of their martyr. The pictures I have chosen best corporate the mood of Britain. The first, two people walk through the front doors of Britain, which represents a transition of a place where knowledge is acquired to a place of relaxation. Once inside, the picture with the television and people eating and chatting, represents a place where all different types of students meet, no one is unwanted or discriminated. This is different than say a fraternity cafeteria, where one would find only a specific group of students. The tale of the Knight would be traded for that of an athlete, the nun would be replaced with a member of the Christian Fraternity, and the wife of Bath’s would be one of the few women of Tech whom are very promiscuous. Lastly, the picture of the stain glassed window servers as a reminder for students of their main goal, to exceed in the acquiring of knowledge. This relates to how the Canterbury Tales mostly focuses on the tales of the pilgrims, Chaucer still reminds you of their purpose. As the tales go on, Chaucer disengages you from the actual tavern, pilgrimage, and the diversity of the group, and instead focuses on the tales or in Tech’s case the knowledge to be acquired. No multimodal presentation would be complete without audio stimulation. An excerpt from the Lord of the Rings Theme song serves as a perfect representation of the ingenious. As Frodo had to embark on his epic journey to destroy the One Ring, the song played all throughout the trilogy. The directors played the song every time Frodo would have a hardship on his long quest. The song fills the listener with excitement and is more at tentative to the quest. As the pilgrims make their journey, this song will play for them, as it will for the students stepping outside Britain, ready to challenge the world with their knowledge.

Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (Barnes & Noble Classics). New York: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2007. Print.
The Lord of the Rings film trilogy. The Ring Goes South. Cond. Howard Shore. 2003. Http://en.wikipedia.org/. Web. .