In The Canterbury Tales, women appear either as storytellers or as part of the tales themselves. We must therefore make a clear distinction between the women of the pilgrimage and the characters mentioned in the tales. The former are supposed to belong to the real life, if we agree to play the game proposed by Chaucer, whereas the latter obviously belong to myths and to the pilgrims' imagination. It does not mean that the women mentioned in the tales don't exist at all, but rather that they embody different aspects and characters of women in general. They may have existed, but that their story is somehow distorted by subjective narrators. In the same way, we know that there are neither pilgrimages, nor pilgrims whose Chaucer relates the stories, but we will play the game at first in order to make a clear distinction and to regard these "pilgrims" as more realistic and psychologically more complete than the women in the tales. However, to speak at length of these different aspects and the way women are described in The Canterbury Tales we must focus on the role of women in medieval times. We cannot speak of feminism at that time, as women were still regarded as the evil catalyst of human sin and had no predominant role in society. She is submitted to the authority of her husband; she has no power on the social stage and is not considered as being a citizen. On the contrary, some women are regarded as saints when they are virtuous and try to transmit their faith in Christianity. Women are indeed described from various points of view: seen as devils or saints by the pilgrims in their tales, more shaded by Chaucer in his description of the women pilgrims. Throughout the following study, we will try to answer the question that the subject of "Women in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales" raises, that is to say: What portrait is made of woman and by whom in The Canterbury Tales?
Tags: Comedy in the Canterbury tales, Humor and irony in the Canterbury tales, Role of women in Canterbury tales, Ambiguity in the Canterbury tales, Moral values in Canterbury tales
[...] The use of three tales of the pilgrims seems relevant to study this point: the Miller's Tale, the Merchant's Tale and the Reeve's Tale. Alison, in the Miller's Tale, is definitely an unworthy wife: she is married to an old carpenter and claims not to be attracted by Nicholas, the young man who lives in their house. At Nicholas's first attempt to seduce her, she doesn't resist and they prepare a trick to cuckold the husband. May, in the Merchant's Tale uses the same device of a trick made to her husband in order to make love with Damian in a tree – under her husband's very nose. [...]
[...] In these three tales, women are devoted to their husband and benevolent. Emily, in the Knight's Tale, will accept any man proposed by her brother, the king, if he is worthy and deserves her love. In this way, she takes Palamon for her husband because of Arcite's death. Her opinion is never mentioned because she is supposed to share the king's one. She is worthy and prays before the battle ever to stay a virgin. That's the only time in the tale when we know her thoughts, but on the whole, she doesn't say whether she is happy to marry Palamon or would have preferred another husband. [...]
[...] Once more, we are confronted with the credit that must be given to interpretations. In fact, if the wife of Bath condemns men's interpretations of the Bible and of mythological events, she could also be criticized for her interpretations: she believes that the Bible recommends enjoying and multiplying but she has no children and only care about the first word. Paradoxically, language brings her to contradict herself: the wife of Bath critics male interpretations and explains hers as being founded. [...]
[...] Peggy Knapp speaks of “Cunstance's ‘subjectness'”, to this critic, “The Man of Law's Tale presents Cunstance's passivity as an ideal for women”. The second character who is clearly described as a saint is Cecilia in the Second Nun's Tale. Saint Cecilia's life is told by a nun: the narrator is then a woman and a religious character. She can but draw a very nice picture of the girl. She dies as a martyr and embodies all virtues of virginity, faith and non- submission to pagan authority. [...]
[...] But women in the tales can also be saints or at least virtuous ones. It is the case in the Man of Law's Tale: Constance is the ever-faithful wife and daughter. She always accepts her fate as a will of God and obeys her husbands and her father. As Peggy Knapp states it in her book, Chaucer and the Social Contest: “She [Constance] accepts the decisions of those under whose authority she falls, even though she seems to understand the danger into which she is being sent.” She accepts to marry the Sultan when he adopts her faith in God and, later, marries the king because he let God decide what judgement should be applied and to whom about the death of Hermengild. [...]
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