Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
The role of women in English literature
The role of women in English literature
Religious elements in the play the second shepherds play
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The role of women in English literature
The star football player was about to be forced off the team because of poor academic grades. In desperation, the coach approached the Dean of the college and swore on his honor that he would give the lad a final exam in one of his subjects, and if the boy didn’t pass he would take him from the team immediately.
The night before the big game the coach met with the boy to test him.
“What,” asked the coach, “is the name of the first recorded piece of British Literature?”
“Coach,” replied the boy, “I don’t have the slightest idea.”
“That’s right!” exclaimed the coach, “You don’t! Okay, you’re in the starting line-up tomorrow!”
This could be my story. I play sports-any sport-all sports-football, basketball, baseball you name it. The thought of my enjoying British Literature seems hard for even me to believe.
When faced with this assignment, I found myself in a slight panic. However, much to my surprise, it wasn’t all that bad.
In going over the choices, I knew I had to choose to write about women, and their roles in these tales. The fact that they were involved in sex, deceit, and adultery had nothing to do with my decision. And as Oscar Wilde said, “The world is packed with good and evil women. To know them is a middle class education.” I’m certainly a believer in that philosophy! After all, that’s why I’m in school.
In beginning to compare and contrast the role of women the The Wife of Bath’s Tale, by Geoffrey Chaucer, The Second Shepherd’s Play, by Wakefield Master, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by Sir Gawain, one needs to look closely at the stories.
The Wife of Bath’s , tale is a brief Arthurian romance incorporating the widespread theme of the “loathly lady.” It is the story of a woman magically transformed into an ugly shape who can be restored to her former state only be some specific action.
It also embodies some surprising traces of the courtly tradition, along with The Second Shepherd’s Play, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. All three tales seem to illustrate the transforming power of love for their men. Although they were are different they all showed the effect of their love. That the true lover cannot be corrupted by avarice; love makes an ugly and rude person shine with all beauty. They know how to endow with nobility even one of humble birth.
Marie de France’s “Lanval” is a brilliantly witty and captivating narrative poem—one illustrating a knight’s unyielding honor and loyalty to his king as well as his enduring chivalric devotion to the woman he loves. Written in the twelfth century, amidst a time when women were looked down upon and considered useless and unnecessary, Marie’s portrayal of a knight needing to be rescued by his female lover breathes comic irony into this otherwise misogynistic and antifeminist world. In addition to this cleverly depicted romance, a further literary work, Geoffrey Chaucer’s early fifteenth century “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” extends its own explicitly satirical outlook
Changing Women's Roles in The Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Canterbury Tales
Some say women can get the worst out of a man, but in The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1485, proves it. The tales were originally written as a collection of twenty four tales, but has been narrowed down to three short tales for high school readers. The three tales consist of “The Miller”, “The Knight”, and “The Wife of Bath” along with their respective prologues. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer shows the weak but strong role of women throughout the “The Knight’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” to contrast different human characteristics and stereotypes on the spectrum of people.
The dominance of men in the Middle Ages is unethical, irrational, and dangerous; women are given few rights and the opportunity to earn rights is non-existent. The dictates to the dominance is formed by the internal combination of man’s personal desire and religious interference. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s, The Canterbury Tales, the combined perspectives’ on a haughty Pardoner and non-subservient wife is the stronghold of separation in moral roles. The moral roles between men and women are exemplified in the rankings of religious hierarchy for men are at the top and women towards the bottom. Even prestigious women, ones with noble connections, are subservient to men, but contradictorily have religious affiliations. The “Wife of Bath’s Tale” is a perfect example of defying man’s dominance and the “Pardoner’s Tale”, a problematic reasoning of why selfishness connects moreover to the manipulation. The frailties of religious reasoning however, will cause The Pardoner and the Wife of Bath to be separated from society’s morals.
It was Cyprowski’s first football practice with his new team at his new college. This practice was intense and it was hot. It was a division one school with division one athletes and Cyprowski was the smallest little guy on the team. Being the smallest guy, it’s tough standing out, but one thing he had going for him was being quick. Cyprowski was always the first guy to the ball and when he couldn’t do that anymore, he knew something was wrong.
The two tales, told by the Wife of Bath and the Clerk in The Canterbury Tales, have parallel plots. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” begins with a lusty knight standing before his king’s court because of unjust acts he committed with a young maiden. Before the king can execute the knight, the queen objects and offers that the knight’s life is spared if he can find the answer to what women really want. The knight embarks on his journey to discover the answer (“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” 167-68). Similarly, “The Clerk’s Tale” takes place in the kingdom of Saluzzo, Italy under the control of Walter, the marquis. The people of Saluzzo eagerly advised Walter to find a wife to ensure an heir to the throne. Walter finally finds the standard, beautiful woman in poverty named Griselda. She values hard work and humility, and Walter chooses to marry her. However, she must take a vow to Walter never to complain and to be loyal despite whatever the future may bring. Both plots revolve around the noble class and the differences among the social structure of the time because of the variety of characters portrayed in each tale. The two tales’ plots are d...
McDonnell, Helen, Neil E. Nakadate, John Pfordresher, and Thomas E. Shoemate. ENGLAND in Literature. Medallion ed. N.p.: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1990. 69-80. Print.
Leicester, Jr., H. Marshall. "Public and Private Feminism in the Wife of Bath's Tale." Women's Studies 11.1-2 (1985): 157-78.
In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, a reader is introduced to a rather bizarre and heterogeneous group of people leaving for a pilgrimage. The Wife of Bath is the most interesting and lively character of the group. Her "Prologue" and "Tale" provide readers with a moral lesson as well as comic relief. The Wife's "Prologue" serves as an overture to her "Tale", in which she states a very important point regarding the nature of women and their most sacred desires. According to this character, women desire sovereignty, or power, over their men most in the world. This wish seems to be most appropriate for women of the time period in which Chaucer lived. However, women today no longer wish to dominate their men - sovereignty of women over men is not relevant in the twenty-first century. The reason is that women are no longer deprived of power and freedom.
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.
In the Middle Ages, the roles of women became less restricted and confined and women became more opinionated and vocal. Sir Gawain and The Green Knight presents Lady Bertilak, the wife of Sir Bertilak, as a woman who seems to possess some supernatural powers who seduces Sir Gawain, and Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale, present women who are determined to have power and gain sovereignty over the men in their lives. The female characters are very openly sensual and honest about their wants and desires. It is true that it is Morgan the Fay who is pulling the strings in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; nevertheless the Gawain poet still gives her a role that empowers her. Alison in The Wife if Bath Prologue represents the voice of feminism and paves the way for a discourse in the relationships between husbands and wives and the role of the woman in society.
Literature: The British Tradition. Ed. Roger Babusci etal. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1994. 69-79.
As a man fascinated with the role of women during the 14th Century, or most commonly known as the Middle Ages, Chaucer makes conclusive evaluations and remarks concerning how women were viewed during this time period. Determined to show that women were not weak and humble because of the male dominance surrounding them, Chaucer sets out to prove that women were a powerful and strong-willed gender. In order to defend this argument, the following characters and their tales will be examined: Griselda from the Clerk's Tale, and the Wife of Bath, narrator to the Wife of Bath's Tale. Using the role of gender within the genres of the Canterbury Tales, exploring each woman's participation in the outcomes of their tales, and comparing and contrasting these two heroines, we will find out how Chaucer broke the mold on medievalist attitudes toward women.
The investigation into whether or not Geoffrey Chaucer was ahead of his time in terms of his views on feminism has been up for debate for hundreds of years. The Wife of Bath’s Prologue is just one solitary
In the earlier years of literature and life women's roles within society were at a minimum and woman were shunned upon by men. They are also suppressed, unequal, and seen as the minority in the population. Within these three poems; "Goblin Market", "MacBeth", and "Sir Gawain and The Green Knight" the position of women and lack of power is displayed in broad context and is projected out to the audience, they also show the way woman are used for one’s self pleasures. Gender behavior is remarkably swayed by social factors than by natural differences, like how humans naturally are supposed or how they want to respond to certain thing. Gender roles of men and woman heavily depend on culture, race, location, religion, location, a stance on politics and so many more circumstances. The way society is determined is by your outside forces, the trend. It is basically what everyone expects you to do, to be, to look like, to marry and so forth. Believe it or not, when you learn to read, you are also learning your culture. As a child the first few books you read are set up to give you a vision of the ideal boy and the ideal girl and what to expect from them. This doing can shape the way you look at life as a child and you will grow off of that very platform and extend the branches. What is old English literature book without a woman either being stupid, sexual or trying to mock a masculine quality figure of a hero? Exploring these three works of literature, you can also gain a sense of where you came from and how you think subconsciously. Most people don’t realize that who they are today, and how they think today is based upon their past. Men and women both play important roles no matter what they “rank” in society in English Literature. To c...