MTLE Communication Arts/Literature Practice Test

In The Parlement of Foules, what serves as characters to parody and probe human nature?

Animals Gods Machines Astral bodies

Correct Answer:

Animals

Explanation:

Animals serve as stand-ins for people, letting Chaucer use their animal traits and voices to mirror human courtship, social ranks, and behavior. In The Parlement of Foules, the birds speak, argue, and make decisions in a chamber-like setting, but their conversations about love, marriage, and power reveal the same struggles people face—desire, competition, expectations, and hypocrisy. This distance created by having animals talk and act like humans lets readers laugh at human foibles while noticing how closely those foibles resemble our own. The birds aren’t gods or machines or celestial bodies; they are living creatures given human concerns, which is exactly how the work parodies and probes human nature.

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