Women in Canterbury Tales

A detailed Summary of Women in Canterbury Tales

Throughout the Canterbury Tales women are treated as objects. In the "Knight's Tale" a beautiful maiden is sought after by two men, men willing to do whatever it takes to have her. The carpenter in the "Miller's Tale" married a young and beautiful women, and she is pursued by two men because of her beauty. Two students exact revenge upon a miller in the "Reeve's Tale" by sleeping with his wife and daughter, taking their revenge on the miller by violating his possessions. Finally, in the "Wife of Bath's Tale" a knight rapes a woman, and then despises his wife because she is ugly and poor. By acting this way the knight displays ignorance in his attitude towards women, treating them as nothing more than objects. Women in the Canterbury Tales are often given a worth, defined by their looks, upbringing, and wealth. Women are not sought after for their intelligence, knowledge, ability, or wisdom. It is only in the end of the "Wife of Bath's Tale" that Chaucer uses the knight and the old woman as an example of how men should view women, and how there is more to women than beauty and money.

The "Knight's Tale" puts a beautiful woman on pedesta

For, John, there is a law that gans like this:

Then in another he shall be relieved." (115)

The two students use sex with the miller's daughter and wife to "ease" the humiliation of being tricked by the miller. The students sleep with both women, and by violating the miller's wife and daughter they are devaluing them, and in turn hurting the miller because of his association with them as the husband and father. The women are not seen as having minds of their own, which dehumanizes them in the eyes of the reader.

In the previous tale, the miller tells a story about a carpenter being tricked by a student. Now, the reeve tells his tale about a miller being tricked by students, and not only do they sleep with his wife but his daughter as well. This tale focuses more upon the miller and the students, Alan and John, showing how the miller cheats the people when he grinds their grain, and how the students are determined to stop the miller from stealing their flour. The two students fail to stop the miller from stealing their ground corn flour, but when they stay overnight at the miller's house, they decide to exact revenge. The miller and his wife go to bed drunk, and Alan justifies taking advantage of Simpkin's daughter in the following quote.

The Canterbury Tales portrays women as objects rather than human beings. In all four tales women did not hold jobs, were not educated or upstanding members of society, and did not appear to have minds of their own. The women acquiesced to the wi

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Approximate Word count = 1011
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English