Is Wyatt’s “Whoso List to Hunt” unique enough to be considered an original poem? Does it plagiarize all or part of Petrarch’s Rime 190? Or does it attempt to translate Petrarch’s Rime 190 into English?
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How are women and women's bodies portrayed in Wyatt's "Whoso List to Hunt"? One Petrarchan scholar wrote that Petrarch's poems were no more than "a great fiction to compensate for a real state of affairs in which it was a man's world and a violent one at that." Do you consider this fiction an adequate compensation? To what extent do you think this fiction served to alleviate or aggravate the real state of affairs? What attitudes toward women are implicit in the text? Provide at least one explicit example from the text as the basis of your argument. Be sure to provide sufficient commentary to make your point convincing.
Reread lines 131-134. Do you see Gawain's self-description as a sincere self-evaluation? Or as false modesty? Explain why.
Would you expect a contemporary heroes to describe themeselves in this way? Why or why not? Reread lines 37-45. How does the Green Knight appeal to Arthur's sense of honor?
Reflect on the wife's ideas and attitudes concerning women. Analyze how one of the wife's ideas or attitudes is similar to or different from contemporary feminist ideas and attitudes.
Review the old woman's arguments concerning gentility and gentleness, wealth and poverty. Select one point in her argument and explain why it is or is not relevant to our present social situation.
Review the various answers that the knight rejected (lines 101-124). Why do you think he rejected these but accepted the old woman's answer? Did the knight have some reason for believing that the old woman's answer would please the queen and other ladies?
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