A key theme in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is, The Role of Women. The roles of the women characters have been a source of intrigue and debate for centuries. In The Wife of Bath’s Prologue, she uses biblical allusions to both defend and promote her view about the role of women in society. The Wife also contradicts herself at times, she does not seem to have a single set point of view.
The Wife of Bath’s Prologue can also be viewed as a type of confession or penance where she is expanding her testimony and justifying her position through religious references. The role of women is argued from both points of view in The Wife of Bath’s Tale, the fourteenth-century debate between the Clerk and Wife continues on into The Merchant’s Tale with a twist. The final tale is The Franklin’s Tale which seems to defend Chaucer’s original views about women.
The Canterbury Tales characters frequently reference religion when discussing The Role of Women within marriage and society, this shows that medieval times was very patriarchal where men were expected to be in power while women were expected to be subservient. The Wife of Bath is the only character that appears to be aware of this power imbalance, she shows her awareness through her constant biblical quotes and other references throughout The Canterbury Tales.
The Wife of Bath’s Prologue also works as a confession where she defends herself, justifies The Role of Women within marriage, expresses frustration at being silenced by men, gives examples from The Bible to justify her views about The Role of Women, and tells tales which are supposedly very personal stories. The Wife even claims to have studied under St. Paul in order to further support her argument for equality between genders. She has no problem with being controlled by a man but wants an equal amount of control within their relationship.
Chaucer implies that The Wife of Bath’s Prologue is a confession because The Wife blatantly prays for forgiveness at the end of The Prologue. The Wife of Bath’s tale uses constant religious references that The Wife uses to validate her argument which reinforces The Prologue as a form of penance. The Wife tells Chaucer before The Canterbury Tales begins that she wants to tell him five stories; these requests seem like demands rather than simple suggestions, which further emphasizes the significance and power behind The Wife’s words.
The Clerk’s Tale shows how patriarchal times were by showing women in three different stages: child, a marriageable woman (not married), and wife (married). Griselda at first has no control over anything that happens in her life, then The Clerk explains how The Marquis transforms Griselda from a child to a wife in The Merchant’s Tale. The Franklin in The Franklin’s tale wants more control in his marital relationship and wants The Wife of Bath to tell him The Clerk’s Tale, this shows that The Wife is respected and known for her knowledge about The Role of Women.
The Wife of Bath’s Prologue can be viewed as a confession or penance where she is expanding her testimony and justifying her position through religious references. At the end of The Wife of Bath’s Prologue, Chaucer indicates that he feels sorry for The Wife when she asks for forgiveness; this could mean Chaucer was sympathising with The Wife rather than giving credence to the story she tells.
The Wife of Bath is a prime example after she tells her tale. The Prioress, The Merchant’s Wife and The Nun’s Priest’s Tale tell the story from the point of view that women are sinners. The Clerk tries to write his Prologue in which he does not blame all women for the sin they commit, but only individuals who do wrong. There were two sides of writing tales by Chaucer: The way it appeared on the surface and the way his writings were affected by social class structure at that period of time.
This article contains a paragraph or more about the information provided in the background section.
The Canterbury Tales was written around 1386-1400 during a time when upper society thought highly of women because The Church did. The upper class used women as an example of The Church’s teachings. The Book of The Knight was the first tale that Chaucer wrote but it was lost during The Peasant Revolt of 1381. The Nun’s Priest Tale was the last tale written and also focuses on nuns. The Wife of Bath, The Merchant’s Wife and The Prioress were among some popular characters in the story who had major roles to play with men.
The article ends with a summary, conclusion or concluding remarks about the topic presented in the article. Women seem like they are not trusted by men because they can be violent towards them for what they believe is right or wrong; Chaucer shows through his writings that this violence between men and women will never end because they can never be trusted by each other. The roles of women during The Canterbury Tales were stronger than that of men and they still hold the same rules today.
The Canterbury Tales is an unfinished series of stories told by pilgrims making their way to Canterbury Cathedral. The tales are meant to be in the tradition of The Decameron, in which a group of women and men in Italy tell each other stories in order to stave off boredom during a plague. The storytelling itself occurs on the second day, so the characters have spent two nights traveling before they arrive at their destination. The key difference between The Canterbury Tales and The Decameron is that Chaucer’s work has no frame story or authorial voice; it simply consists of the tales told by the seven travelers. The general presumption is that all 74 tales were written by Geoffrey Chaucer, but some may have been added later by unknown writers.
The role of women in The Canterbury Tales is difficult to summarize, particularly because the non-narrative passages are sometimes misogynistic. Early on, The Knight’s Tale appears to establish a clear picture of an ideal woman as someone who is both chaste and obedient: The Knight tells the story of “philosophers” (1.1744) Theseus and Hippolita, who enforced chastity with such severity that women were barred from leaving their homes without their husbands’ permission. The wife of Theseus breaks this rule when she falls in love with another man and ultimately dies after discovering her husband murdered her lover and imprisoned his own father.
