Women and Spring in The Canterbury Tales
In Geoffrey Chaucer's collection of stories; The Canterbury Tales, there is a recurring theme of love being the most important aspect of a person's life. The author enforces this theme through the usage of springtime imagery, especially an emphasis on the month of May. Not only May, but the importance of it and the flowers that bloom in it. May is when spring begins to turn into summer and flowers really bloom. This fact makes May a very pivotal month in the calendar and effects the weather and nature from there on out. If flowers bloom late then it will be different weather in June than if the flowers bloom early. In The Canterbury Tales, women are often compared to flowers and to May making them seem very powerful yet beautiful. Most of the women in this collection of tales are very beautiful, and very influential and authoritative towards men in their lives.
In the "Knight's Tale" the two prisoners see the beautiful woman in the garden and fall in love with her. When Emily is described, it is said that she was "fresher than May with its flowers." (Chaucer, pg 51) The two prisoners haven't even seen this woman yet and she is already being described like this. She is compared to flowers in May, which is a very good image to be compared to. May is known for flowers, like in the saying `April showers bring May flowers', some of the most beautiful flowers bloom then. Flowers such as daisies, poppies, lavender, baby's breath, and tulips all bloom in May, just to name a few. When a flower just blooms it is fresh, just like in spring when the snow melts and everything seems fresh and clean. To say that Emily is like this makes a very beautiful image come to mind. The theme then comes in with this when the two prisoners fall in love with her. She is compared to spring constantly, and two men fall in love with her simultaneously, to the point where they would kill each other for her. Their lives become consumed with her, and she is identical to spring. Emily is the springtime of these two men's lives and their love for it is the most important thing to them. She is influential on men when she begins to weep at the thought of them dying. She uses her beauty to make the Duke not sentence the two prisoners to death. He feels bad and decides to not make the order.
In "The Miller," the leading lady of the story is also very beautiful. She is well dressed, talented and good looking. "She [is] a morning glory, she [is] a daisy," (Chaucer, pg 153) both of which are May flowers. Morning glories and daisies are well known for their beauty and they both are happy flowers. They remind people of happy things, such as springtime and May. Again, comparing a woman to a flower is a very positive thing to say, and the fact that she is later on helps bring out the reoccurring theme. Many men in this woman's village are infatuated with her; including her husband, the parish clerk and Nicholas. They all try to win her by confessing their undying love for her. The parish clerk sings to her under her window at night "like a nightingale." (Chaucer, pg 159) A bird like a nightingale is usually associated with summer or spring, in fact any bird usually is. But the making him a bird, and her a flower that he is singing to is an ultimate springtime image. May is all about flowers and birds. The men again are devoting their lives to her, and she is once again springtime. The spring makes them want to love and her beauty makes them want to love her. She has power over all of these men because she decides which one she will love.
These images occur over and over again through out the stories. Not only is love the most important thing in life, but also women are in charge when it comes to love. The women in the stories are fair and beautiful like spring, and can control when love occurs. The lusty feeling that spring causes only happens because it is spring, when women are beautiful they control men. Pretty women can with hold sexual pleasure like in the "Wife of Bath" or they can limit sex to certain men like the woman in "The Miller" does. The first sign of spring is flowers, they control when spring begins; a beautiful woman who is compared to a springtime flower can control when the lust and the love begins.
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