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The Significance of Women in Chaucer's The Cantebury Tales
In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Cantebury Tales, many stories are told leading to a wide range of topics. One particular and significant topic Chaucer touches on many times is the role of women. In stories such as The Millers Tale, The Knight's Tale, and the Wife of Bath's Tale the women of each story are portrayed extremely different. Alisoun, Emelye, and the wife of Bath, each exemplify three dissimilar ways in which women love. The way Chaucer describes each of these characters is dependent on the out come of each particular story. Chaucer is careful with his word choice and figurative language with each woman, enabling the reader to get a very visual and sometimes humorous picture.
Since the Miller's Tale is a parody of the Knight's Tale there is great wit when it comes to the role that Alisoun plays. Emelye on the other hand, is constructed in a more serious and respectful way. Emelye of the Knight's Tale has two men madly in love with her- Arcite and Palamon. These two men are imprisoned for life and can only imagine the idea of loving and having Emelye as a wife. Palamon upon seeing Emelye cries,
"Into myn herte, that wol my bane ./ The fairnese of that lady that I see / Yond in the gardyn romen to and fro / Is cause of al my criying and my wo. / I noot where she be woman or goddesse. . . (1097-1101).
His statement of love is so profound that Palamon is not even sure if Emelye is a woman or a goddess, but is sure of her "fairness" and beauty. Arcite also loves Emelye and ridicules Palamon's thoughts about Emelye being a goddess, he states, "Though woost nat yet now / Wheiter she be a womman or goddesse"(1156-1157). When Arcite falls in...
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...e and foolish people can act while in love; this is something that many stories try to teach their readers. Finally, somehow, Chaucer may have been reaching out to women with The Wife of Bath's Tale, although some believe she is used as an anti-feminist tool, perhaps Chaucer's point was to have that woman teach other women the positives of being in control. No matter what message these women bring, Chaucer clearly appreciates their importance not only to his readers, but also to his tales.
Works Cited
Brown, Peter. Chaucer at Work: The Making of the Cantebury Tales. New York: Longman Group, 1994.
Cooper, Helen. The Structure of The Cantebury Tales. Athens: The University Of Georgia Press, 1984.
Pursell, Willene van Loenen. Love and Marriage in Three English Authors: Chaucer, Milton, and Eliot. Stanford: Leland Stanford Junior University, 1963.
Most of the time the customers who go to the park often go in Groups.
Because Gene is dishonest he imagines that everyone else is as well. Gene imagines that Finny’s character is exactly the same as his, which of course it isn’t. Gene builds up hate, anger and fear of the character that he has given to Finny. Since this is his own character and not Finny’s at all, the emotions that Gene feels towards this character are really what he feels towards his own character.
The characters of Gene and Finny are as opposite as apples and oranges. Finny is
At the end of the book, once Finny has past away, Gene learns to live life for himself, not through somebody else. He was ready for anything. He no longer “owed” anybody anything. He had nothing else to suffer for. On page 195 it sums up the independence part of his relationship with Finny best. “I was ready for the war, now that I no longer had any hatred to contribute to it.
Women are prizes to be won over in this tale. Competition for women is portrayed throughout the entire story. This competition leads to lies and deceit which overall creates an unstable conflict. But, because of the way of life, the people who don’t lie and deceit still lose out in the end. Therefore, Chaucer teaches us that life isn’t fair and that people don’t always get what they deserve.
was so much a part of the other. To Finny, Gene has always been an
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. Berkeley: U of California P. 1992. Print. (Kennedy Library PR1928.W64 H36 1992)
...er. Finny and Gene’s friendship changed many times over the course of the book, and it also changed the way the narration was written.
Toswell, M.J. "Chaucer's Pardoner, Chaucer's World, Chaucer's Style: Three Approaches to Medieval Literature." College Literature 28.3 (2001): 155. Literature Resource Center. Web. 25 Feb. 2011.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed Mack, Maynard et al. W. W. Norton and Co. New York, NY. 1992.
From the bitter Emilia to the pious Isabella, Shakespeare was a champion of crafting women. With a wide range of personalities, professions, and situations, Shakespeare mastered early in his illustrious career the art of creating diverse, dynamic, and multidimensional female characters. When stepping outside the traditional roles for female characters in theater, Shakespeare pushed boundaries by giving his women intelligent wit, innate humor, motives and goals which the Elizabethan and Jacobean audiences could relate directly to their own experiences. More than anything else, Shakespeare created a race of theatrical females who were first and foremost described as complete human women with virtues and vices which were believable and realistic. With these attributes, Shakespeare’s women were able to perceive unequal distributions of power in their worlds, particularly the distribution of power in the romantic relationships which in many cases were chosen for them. Comprehending with a bitter distaste the lack of control they held over their future lives, the women of Shakespeare took matters into their own hands more often than not, utilizing revolutionary or unconventional means to gain dominance in the power dynamics of their relationships. William Shakespeare offered his female characters the abilities and opportunities to recognize their subordinate positions concerning romantic relationships as well as the initiative to attempt a shift in these power dynamics.
In both the Miller’s Tale and the Wife of Bath’s Tale, Chaucer uses his characters and stories in order to project various stereotypes to the reader. Although varying a tad bit throughout the book, the tone that seems to be drawn from the stories is that women are manipulating, sinful, and power hungry, while men are considered gullible and rash. Its through understand and analyzing these stereotypes that we can fully understand what Chaucer’s stories are trying to convey to us.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed Mack, Maynard et al. W. W. Norton and Co. New York, NY. 1992. 1551-1621.
Traditional female characteristics and female unrest are underscored in literary works of the Middle Ages. Although patriarchal views were firmly established back then, traces of female contempt for such beliefs could be found in several popular literary works. Female characters’ opposition to societal norms serves to create humor and wish- fulfillment for female and male audiences to enjoy. “Lanval” by Marie De France and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer both show subversion of patriarchal attitudes by displaying the women in the text as superior or equal to the men. However, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” also incorporates conventional societal ideas by including degradation of women and mistreatment of a wife by her husband.
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. (1992). Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. University of California Press, Ltd: England. (pgs 188-208).