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Women in medieval literature and society
Female roles in medieval literature
Women in medieval literature and society
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Geoffrey Chaucer depicts the stereotypical images of women in The Reeve’s Tale by utilizing the Miller’s wife and their daughter, Malyne. Chaucer elucidate how women during the Medieval times were oppressed and subservient; they can not decide how they can live. Women were considered to be of lower hierarchy to men and must obey every command given to them. To emphasize the stereotypical image of women during Medieval Times, while Aleyn and John sought revenge against the infamous Miller for stealing their corn, they aimed at the Miller’s wife and the daughter because they knew that the two women were vulnerable and easily manipulated. When Aleyn crept into Malyne’s bed, the narrator articulates that “it was too late to cry out, and shortly
When Chaucer’s knight stands judgment for the rape of an innocent girl, it is the queen’s authority that decides his fate: “And yaf him to the queene, al at hir wille, / To chese wheither she wolde him save or spille” (903-904). Using her power to humiliate the knight even further, she metes out the most ironic of punishments: “I graunte thee lif if thou canst tellen me / What thing is it that wommen most desiren” (910-911). With the queen’s decree, a great importance is placed upon the understanding of a woman’s needs—for this knowledge is the only hope in saving a man’s
A serf who is a steward of a manor; he sees that the estate’s work is done and that everything is accounted for. He inspects everything and imposes fines on the workers if he finds anything wrong. Old, choleris (bad-tempered) and thin, skinny legs. Wears his hair like a priest- cut above his ears and docked on top. Chaucer starts out by saying that the Reeve does his job well, but he ends by implying that he is mean to the serfs and has become rich by embezzling from his master. He is dishonest and uses people. “A carpenter of first-rate skill” In Line 632.. Rides a dappled-gray horse named Scot. “Rode the hindmost of our cavalcade”- the last pilgrim in line on the journey.
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales are filled with many entertaining tales from a variety of characters of different social classes and background. The first two tales told, by the knight and the miller, articulate very different perspectives of medieval life. Primarily, The tales of both the knight and the miller bring strikingly different views on the idea of female agency, and as we will discover, Chaucer himself leaves hints that he supports the more involved, independent Alison, over the paper-thin character of Emily.
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.
In the Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, The Reeve’s Tale describes how two college boys met the Miller and decide to set him straight. In the prologue of the tale, the Reeve, named Oswald, reflects on the Miller’s tale. Oswald seems to be the only person who is not amused by the Miller’s tale, and therefore, decides to expand on these feelings in his own tale.
The Miller’s Tale and the movie Titanic may not seem that similar at a glance, but this Geoffrey Chaucer story and James Cameron movie both include women that are important to the story and get what they want from the men around them, even though they are at a disadvantage due to being women. The literature criticism, Misogynist versus Feminist Chaucer, says “In a patriarchal society in which women enjoy a lesser degree of wealth, status and power than the men of their own class, the construction of gender involves not just the creation of social difference but also the reaffirmation of a fundamental inequality between the sexes, as sexual differences come to be presented as a justification for sexual inequality” (Rigby). These young women, who are eighteen and seventeen years old are Alison and Rose. This paper will discuss the differences between these women, the similarities of these women, and finally, the punishments of the characters within a feministic view point.
During the medieval ages, women were described as evil creatures that would destroy anyone standing in their way to get what they want. People claimed that women's malicious intentions clouded their judgment from doing the right thing forcing them to be selfish. In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and Malory’s The Death of King Arthur, both focus on women’s behavioral impulses through their dishonesty, manipulation, and their promiscuity.
When the Middle Ages began, society was divided into a rigid class system. But by the time Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, the world was changing rapidly. A new social mobility was granted, and the "middle" or working class was created. Before this, women were ignored and often blamed for the plights of their society, and the new social mobility opened many new doors for women. Women, whom for years were starved for control and influence in their world, suddenly could exercise power over their husbands and other men. An example of these revolutionary women can be seen in Chaucer's Alison, the Wife of Bath. The Wife of Bath, a character in The Canterbury Tales, is a lusty woman who desires nothing more than sovereignty over her husbands, and she says all women desire the same thing.
What would it feel like to be treated as an interchangeable piece of property? In The Reeve’s Tale there is no way to escape the undeniable theme of ownership. There are many situations in the tale that strips the two female characters of their identity. Symkyn’s wife and daughter, Malyne, lack their own voice making it easy for them to become victims of the patriarchal ideology, that females have to be obedient and subordinate. In The Reeve’s Tale, ownership is used to objectify the two female characters by forcing them to be viewed as property instead of human beings. Malyne and her mother are subjected to many forms of mistreatment by the men in this tale further proving how powerless they are when seen as something owned. In their assumed,
Chaucer, in his female pilgrimage thought of women as having an evil-like quality that they always tempt and take from men. They were depicted as untrustworthy, selfish and vain and often like caricatures not like real people at all. Through the faults of both men and women, Chaucer showed what is right and wrong and how one should live. Under the surface, however, lies a jaded look of women in the form that in his writings he seems to crate them as caricatures and show how they cause the downfall of men by sometimes appealing to their desires and other times their fears. Chaucer obviously had very opinionated views of the manners and behaviours of women and expressed it strongly in The Canterbury Tales. In his collection of tales, he portrayed two extremes in his prospect of women. The Wife of Bath represented the extravagant and lusty woman where as the Prioress represented the admirable and devoted followers of church. Chaucer delineated the two characters contrastingly in their appearances, general manners, education and most evidently in their behaviour towards men. Yet, in the midst of disparities, both tales left its readers with an unsolved enigma.
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.
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. Los Angelos, CA: University of California Press, 1992. Print.
Hansen, Elaine. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992. 188-207.
The Prologue of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales provides either a positive or negative description of each character presented by the narrator, namely the tavern keeper. He explains that some characters like the Reeve do not meet the standards of their class. At the beginning of the Reeve’s description, Chaucer tells the reader that he is an old, sick man that is well shaven, clean cut, and hard working on the farm. He also describes the Reeve as choleric, which means he is bad tempered or angry most of the time towards others, and is not as innocent as he looks.
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.