Chaucer' s Women
Chaucer's masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, reflects a very opinionated view of manners and the behaviors of medieval women. Chaucer portrays two extremes of female conduct during this period through the characters of the Prioress and the Wife of Bath. Through the images and descriptions in the poem, the Wife of Bath is representative of a female liberal extremist. On the other end of the spectrum, we have the Prioress, who is a better example of womanhood in the medieval ages. With the use of these contradictory characters, Chaucer shows his viewpoint on how women in society should act, both the right and the wrong ways. To look more closely at the differences we must not go to far, let us look at the " General Prologue."Chaucer portrays The Wife of Bath's physical attributes, saying: "Gat-toothed was she smoothly for to saye" (line ). Her gap symbolizes her sexual accomplishments and her vast beauty. To farther our vivid image of such a woman we should look to the third stanza of the general prologue, Hir coverchiefs ful fine were ground- I dorste swere they weyeden ten pounds- That on a Sonday weren upon hir heed. Ful straite yted , and shoes ful moiste and newe.
She wolde weepe if that she saw a mous With roasted flesh, of milk and wastelbreed, That in Hir coppe ther was no ferthng seene (lines ). In curteisye was set ful muchel hir lest. Chaucer portrays the proper and moral way for a woman to act during the medieval period, by comparing the rude and crude to the modest and empathetic. The poise, manners, behaviors, physical characteristics and stature is used to compare the Wife of Bath to the "perfect" Prioress. These patterns can clearly be seen throughout the rest of the medieval estates: men, aristocracy, merchants, clergy, and peasantry. We can see that the Parson and the Miller both representing the peasantry are also very opposite characters. The Parson, even though he is poor, he is very good and moral individual who is in touch with the clergy and in fact a very religious man. However, on the other side the Miller is portrayed as a pervert and a teller of dirty stories, and who cheats his customers out of money. The Monk and the Friar both representing the clergy, are also very different. The Monk is portrayed as a courageous man, who is not too strict with his studies, which Chaucer agrees with. On! the other side of the coin, the Friar is both a flirt and one who seeks pleasure. As well, he is a corrupt member of the church for he accepts false confessions as bribes. Even though we can see that none of the characters are perfectly bad or good, we can mostly tell that Chaucer identifies more with the moral and pleasant characters, while leaving the other side to look corrupt and as unpleasant as possible. By comparing their two extremes of every level of society, nobility, aristocracy, clergy, men and women, Chaucer completes a sort of Good vs. Bas doctrine on which his audience should base their life styles upon. As seen in the above characteristics that Chaucer uses to compare the Prioress and the Wife of Bath, the one is pious, moral, and innocent, as well as proper, and beautiful while the other is a sinful harlot, blunt, boastful, and unsightly. Chaucer does a
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1384
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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