The Reeve's Tale Analysis

The Canterbury Tales, written in the late fourteenth century by Geoffrey Chaucer, are a group of stories about an assortment of diverse characters whose personas existed during that period in time. The stories cover a wide variety of individuals, ranging from the Wife of Bath, the Pardoner, and the Reeve. Although the majority of the stories were all clearly fictional, the problems seen in each story were true; the author mentions the real-world issues that the members of his society had to experience and endure. Most of the messages found in Chaucer’s literature from the fourteenth century are still applicable today, in the twenty-first century, like the message found in The Reeve’s Tale. One of the concepts found in The Reeve’s Tale was the

The gender inequality seen in The Reeve’s Tale were seen in several different ways. In the time period of this story, sometimes marriage was used to confirm two people’s love for each other, but other times, it was used as a tool in order to rise to a higher social class. A person would raise the social class of their whole family from one member marrying a person who is already a part of the higher social class. This is what the family of the Miller wanted his daughter, Malyne, to do, and her grandfather, the Parson, wanted to make this happen using his own wealth and his own granddaughter’s physical attractiveness. It is not clearly stated whether she was not upset with being force to marry whoever her family tells her to, or if she was angered at the fact that she had no choice of who she wants to marry since she was limited to just one social class. Either way, it shows that she had no option but to accept her fate of having the choice to marry who she wants stolen away from her. She demonstrates that women had no power. A sense of no power is seen in

The instance that initially displayed the story's lack of morality was the constant passion of Haughty Simkin to cheat others out of their goods. Chaucer emphasizes, "He also was a thief of corn and meal, A sly one, too, his habit was to steal" (3939). This extra piece of information that was included in the beginning of the story foreshadows that Simkin would soon be punished for his wrong actions. As the story progresses, the reader learns of next display of immorality, which was both Alan and John initiating sex with Haughty Simkin's daughter and wife while they slept. Again, Alan states that although he cannot physically amend the boys' lost products, there was still an action that could make Alan feel better about himself, which was climbing into Simkin's daughter's bed (Chaucer 4185). John later declares that his reason for having sex with Simkin's wife is because "I lie here like an old bran sack in bed. And when this jape be told another day, I'll be a fool, a 'cockney' they will say" (Chaucer 4207). Although both Alan and John had reasons for their actions, their dialogues serve as proof to show that they only violated Simkin's family for their own benefits. Sex is believed to be a sacred act, but the boys obviously did not perceive it as such. In the aspect of justice being served