Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to the third lesson about The Canterbury Tales, general prologue.

My name is Miss King, and today we will be learning about the three estates and choice's England and exploring the technique of satire.

For today's lesson, all you'll need is a pen and paper or something to write on and with.

Please take a moment now to clear away any distractions, including turning off the notifications on any apps or conversations you have running, if you know how to.

Finally if you can, try to find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed during the lesson.

Okay, so when you're ready, let's begin.

First, let's recap what we learned last lesson.

Pause the video now and see if you can fill in the gaps.

Resume the video once you're finished.

Well done.

Let's have a look at some answers.

You might like to correct any mistakes you made and give yourself a big tick for all the ones you got right.

Pilgrims are people who go on a religious journey to visit a holy place.

This journey is called a pilgrimage.

A frame narrative is when an overall story contains one or more smaller stories within it.

It is essentially a story within a story.

Now, let's move on to today's lesson.

So today we will start by learning what the three estates were, and which characters belong to which estate, before moving on to find out what satire is and which techniques are used in satire.

Okay.

What were the three estates? The three estates were a type of social hierarchy.

So before we move on to look at them, we need to understand what a social hierarchy is first.

A society is a group of people living together in the same place.

The word social an adjective means to do with society, so to do with a group of people living together in the same place.

And a hierarchy is a system in which things were arranged by importance.

So, using what you now know about what the different parts of the term mean, what do you think a social hierarchy might be? Tell the screen if you think you've got it.

Right, let's see if you're right.

A social hierarchy is the way in which a society is organised from the most important people at the top, to the least important people at the bottom.

The social hierarchy in the Middle Ages, when Joseph was writing was known as the estates of the realm or the three estates.

And you can see here in this picture, we have one person representing each of those three estates.

So let's find out what those were.

Right so, right at the top of the hierarchy, the most important person in society in the Middle Ages was the monarch that means the king or the queen.

It was believed that the monarch got their power to rule from God.

This was called the divine right of kings, so they were second only to God.

After that, we have the first estate, the clergy.

These were those who prayed, people who worked for the church such as monks, nuns and priests.

You can see how much power the church had in the Middle Ages.

They're almost at the top.

That's worth remembering for later on.

Next to the second estate, the nobility.

These were those who fought, their job was to fight for the king in battle.

They're sometimes also known as the aristocracy, and they are people who own their own land and have titles like dukes and lords and knights.

And finally, down at the bottom are the peasantry.

These were those who worked, the vast majority of the population.

This group included all sorts of people, from professionals such as doctors and lawyers, to those who produced goods like carpenters and dyers, to those who worked with the land like ploughman.

Now being at the bottom, they were the poorest and least powerful group.

Although even in this group, there was a big difference between the middle class people like doctors and the people who worked the land like ploughman and women were considered to be a different class all of their own.

Right then, let's see if you've got that.

Which of these was the most important? Correct.

The monarch, the king or the queen was the most important person.

Okay, another one.

Which of these was the least important? Yep, the poor old peasantry were right at the bottom of the social hierarchy.

Let's have a look at some of the characters in The Canterbury Tales and find out which characters belong to which estate.

So first up, the clergy.

They are the prioress and the friar, we'll meet them properly in a minute, as well as a parson that's a vicar or a priest, a nun, a monk, a member of a religious community of men, a pardoner, someone who forgave your sins if you paid the money, bit dodgy if you ask me, and also the church court summoner, someone who called people to court for their crimes against the church.

So the prioress.

The prioress is a woman who is head of a house of nuns.

And nuns, a nun is a member of a religious community of women.

We'll get to know her a lot better later on in lesson five.

Friar.

Friar is a member of a religious community of men.

Again, you'll get to make his acquaintance properly when you get to lesson six.

Let's just check you're paying attention.

Can you match each character to their role? Pause the video now if you need to.

Oh, you are brilliant.

Absolutely.

A prioress is the head of a house of nuns, and a friar is a member of a religious community of men.

Good job.

Right, moving on down we have the second estate nobility.

Of ever only two characters from this estate in The Canterbury Tales, the knight and his son, the squire.

The squire is a man of high social standing, who owns and lives on an estate.

Now, a knight was a man who served his Lord as a soldier in armour and on horseback.

You can tell how important he is from his fancy clothing in this picture.

Even his horse is covered in gold.

He's wearing armour that's metal coverings want to protect the body in battle.

And last but not least, well, actually, they were the peasantry.

This group, as we said before, includes a huge variety of people.

So those who worked.

We'll meet the miller in the final lesson of this series.

You'll notice that the Wife of Bath is in brackets.

Why might that be? Can you remember what we said about women in the Middle Ages? That's right.

Women were considered a whole separate class of their own.

So technically, she's maybe not quite in the peasantry.

After that then we have members of the professions a doctor, a lawyer, the middle class.

We have some local officials.

Oh, a sailor, then some local officials a manciple, a reeve, people who made things such as a cook, a haberdasher that's someone who fixes clothes, a dyer, a carpenter, a weaver, a carpet-maker, and then people who worked or managed the land, a ploughman and a yeoman.

And not to forget our host, the landlord Harry Bailey.

So the wife of bath.

A wife bath is a woman who has been married five times.

So, although she doesn't technically have a job, you could argue that her job is being a wife.

Now that bit of bath sometimes confuses people.

She wasn't a wife who spent all her time in the bath.

Great, though that sounds.

No, she was from a place called Bath in the southwest of England.

Okay, and the miller.

He is a man who works at a mill, and the mill was a machine used to make flour from grain.

So, let's check your understanding.

Can you match these three characters to their role? Pause the video for a moment now if you need to.

Good work.

So a knight was a man who served as lord as a soldier in armour and on horseback.

The wife of bath is a woman who has been married five times.

And the miller is a man who works at a mill.

You're smashing this.

Okay, a bit trickier.

Which of these two characters, which two of these characters even are in the first estate, the clergy? Yes, is the prioress and the friar.

Okay, which one is in the second estate, the nobility? That's right, it's the knight.

Which character is in the third estate, the peasantry? Yes, is the miller.

Right, so, think back to what you learned about Chaucer in lesson one.

He worked as a courtier, a diplomat and a civil servant.

Which estate do you think Chaucer belonged to? Chaucer was in the third estate, those who worked.

But, his parents were wealthy, they were rich.

And he worked for and became very close to the nobility and the king.

So he was quite close to being in the second estate, nobility.

Okay, so moving on to the second part of our lesson, you've done fantastically so far, well done.

Let's find out what is satire? What does satire mean? Satire is making fun of someone's stupidity or bad behaviour to try and make them improve.

Satire often uses humour, irony, exaggeration, and ridicule.

We'll find out what all those things mean in just a moment.

Let's check your understanding of satire first, though.

See if you can write down this sentence and fill in the gaps.

Pause the video now and resume once you're finished.

Good job.

Satire is making fun of someone's stupidity or bad behaviour to try and make them improve.

If it helps, a good example of satire, which you might be familiar with is the TV programme The Simpsons.

What makes The Simpsons satire? Well, if you think about it, the programme pokes fun of pretty much everyone and everything.

It points out all the negative parts of everyday life and our behaviour in the modern world, and maybe jostles us into trying to be better people.

No one really wants to be Homer Simpson, do they? Right now last bit, which techniques are used in satire? First, we have humour.

That's trying to make the reader laugh.

Another technique often used in satire is irony.

This is when our expectations are reversed.

Have a look at this picture.

What would we expect to happen in this situation? We'd expect the dog to be pulling the sled and the man to be riding in it.

But here, our expectations are reversed.

The man is doing all the hard work, while the dog is getting a lovely sleigh ride with his feet up.

Now if you want to get technical, this is situational irony.

There are also other types of irony such as verbal and dramatic.

Another method is exaggeration, making something seem more than it is.

Like when you told your teacher that your homework took you 10 million years.

And finally, ridicule.

Making someone or something seem ridiculous.

The clue is in the name.

Right, let's check if you followed all that.

What is humour? Yes, humour is making the reader laugh.

What is irony? Irony is when our expectations are reversed.

What's exaggeration? Exaggeration is making something seem more than it is.

And finally, what is ridicule? Ridicule is making someone or something seem ridiculous.

Nice one.

Right.

Finally then, your extended writing task.

You need to answer these questions in full sentences.

You can use the sentence starts to help you and try to include the coloured words on the right.

So your sentence which begins, in the Middle Ages, people were divided into three estates.

Should include the words clergy, nobility, and peasantry.

Pause the video now to complete your task and resume it once you're finished.

Well done.

Let's have a look at some answers.

Let's look first at an acceptable answer.

Now yours might be phrased a bit differently to mine, but it should include the same facts.

You might want to pause the video once the answer is on the screen and correct or add to your own work.

So, in the Middle Ages, people were divided into three estates: clergy, nobility and peasantry.

Examples of characters from The Canterbury Tales in each estate are, the prioress, clergy, the knight, nobility and the miller, peasantry.

Satire is making fun of someone's stupidity or bad behaviour to try and make them improve.

Some of the techniques often used in satire are humour, irony, ridicule and exaggeration.

Now, here's what a really good answer will look like.

In the Middle Ages, people were divided into three estates: clergy, those who prayed, nobility, those who fought and peasantry, those who worked.

All of these groups were below the monarch who was given their right to rule by God.

This way of organising society, with the most important people at the top and the least important at the bottom, is known as a social hierarchy.

Examples of characters from The Canterbury Tales in each estate are the prioress, clergy, the knight, nobility, and the miller, peasantry.

Satire is making fun of someone's stupidity or bad behaviour to try and make them improve.

An example of satire is The Simpsons because it makes fun of ordinary life.

Some of the techniques often used in satire are humour, making the reader laugh, irony, when our expectations are reversed, ridicule, making something or someone seem ridiculous and exaggeration, making something seem more than it is.

Now, that brings us to the end of today's lesson.

Give yourself a pat on the back for all the amazing learning you've done today.

You've earned it.

Now, before you go, I've got two final things I'd like you to do.

First, don't forget to complete the quiz.

Secondly, if you're able to, please take a picture of your work and ask your parent or carer to share it with your teacher so they can see all the fantastic things you've learned today.

Well, all that's left for me to say is thank you.

Take care and enjoy the rest of your learning for today.