Canterbury Tales Masculinity Analysis

    The Wife of Bath's extraordinary prologue gives the reader a dose of what is sometimes missing in early male-written literature: glimpses of female subjectivity. Women in medieval literature are often silent and passive, to the extent that cuckolding is often seen as something one man (the adulterer) does to another (the husband). Eve Sedgwick argues in Between Men that in many literary representations, women are playing pieces or playing fields in struggles between male players. By default it seems, male writers cannot help but create shallow constructions of women; heroism occurs in male spheres of activity, while the wives and daughters make the background, and

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, he introduces a character known as the Wife of Bath. It is her turn to tell the stories, and her tale begins discussing her past marriages in the prologue. Married five times, the Wife of Bath tells us about her own marital issues, and the way she was able to manipulate the gender roles to her own advantage. As interesting of a character as she is, I find Chaucer created the Wife of Bath to deliberately introduce the issues gender roles play in our society. I believe that the role the of the Wife of Bath in the tale was purposely written by Chaucer to twist the traditional gender roles of the time, satirizing how gender plays in society.

While on the way to venerate Saint Thomas Becket’s remains, the entertainment of Chaucer’s Canterbury pilgrims falls upon the requiting of stories between the different estates. However, this requiting quickly turns malicious, the Host’s simple proposition evolving into an aggressive show of social dominance that includes the boasting of both literal and metaphorical rape. The normalization (or, borderline reverence) of aggressive manliness contributes to the creation of both rape culture and compulsory heterosexuality. Consequently, when a man does not dominate a woman—or, does not use his masculinity to humiliate another man—he is seen as weak or effeminate, subsequently placing his sexuality under scrutiny. Such is the motive behind John and Aleyn’s rape of the miller’s wife and daughter—to make Symkin seem weak, and to gain a reputation of superior masculinity. Thus,

“Lanval” by Marie de France and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer are both medieval romances that put a knight on trial by a queen’s court for his treatment of a lady. Throughout the course of this paper, readers will get the opportunity to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and that during the twelfth-century women were superior to men, specifically in their relationships and marriages; however, today men dominant individuals, especially in working world.

All through Canterbury Tales, women are dealt with as objects in everyday life. In the “Miller’s Tale,” an old man marries a younger, attractive women for her looks. In the “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” a virgin woman has her virginity and innocence taken from her by what is suppose to be a noble and honorable knight and when his punishment is later to marry an older, less attractive women, all respect for his newly wife vanishes. A woman’s level of recognition in Canterbury Tales are through her class in society, whether she is young and beautiful, or old and disgusting, and her degree of experience in life. Women are not desired for their intelligence, wisdom and capabilities which might of kept a relationship deceitful-free. The “Wife of

Defining the nature of the relationship between men and women is the primary focus of Geoffrey Chaucer’s ‘The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale’ one of the richest sections of the Canterbury Tales, perhaps due to the importance of the ideas that it discusses in medieval society. The Wife of Bath is an extremely interesting and humorous character who treads a fine line between reinforcing stereotypes about Women and mocking them. According to The Wife of Bath, the relationship between men and women is at its heart mercantile in that it is based upon a system of exchange where sex and money are used to barter for sovereignty.

The concept of masculinity has been around for an eminently long time. However, the qualifications for being

This essay compares the conception honor in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Prologue" and "The Franklin's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales. The problem of honor seems to be timeless in its difficulties. There are many ideas and opinions concerning this delicate subject, which always is popular, along with its ability to frustrate and perplex the human. During the time of Chaucer, females such as the Wife of Bath were asserting their rights against the forces of male chauvinism. Apparently, the battle of the sexes for supremacy is everlasting in its intensity and has always been fought. Consequently, we have both male and female chauvinists, and they appear in Chaucer's works. They make for interesting reading.

Vern L. Bullough's article, "On Being a Male in the Middle Ages," addresses how vital it was for a man living in the middle ages to be sexually active in order to maintain a masculine identity by explaining:

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, an exchange between two mature men shows that masculinity is much more fragile than thought out to be. Chaucer introduces the first man, the Miller, as “a great stout fellow big in brawn and bone.” The second man is the Reeve, who Chaucer introduces as being “Feared like the plague he was, by those beneath... he was a carpenter of first-rate skill.” Chaucer labeling the Miller as a “manly man” and describing the Reeve as a respected figure is important to keep in mind, because he later unmasks these characters, exposing their flaws.

With multiple masculinities, certain masculinities are valued hierarchically over others. A hegemonic form of masculinity is most valued, whereas other masculine styles – such as the young, effeminate and homosexual – are subordinated (Hanke 1992:190; Connell 1998:5). Notably in relation to masculinity, femininity is relegated as

Since The Reeve’s Tale depict women as weak, yet unknowingly in control, many research sources will be utilized to defend the hypothesis. The essay’s that will be used support both the patriarchal dominance and defiance of the master narrative. Each essay focuses on a different topic and subject which allows for multiple sources. A review of the definition of rape during the middle times will be explored and how it relates to The Reeve’s Tale. Likewise, character behavior and personality analysis will be integrated as another method of exploring the female objectification terms along with examples of how the females rebel against societal

In the 21st century, many women have been successful because of feminism. Women empowerment in our current time is a lot strong than in the Medieval period, but it is still weak. In “The Canterbury Tales” by Chaucer it represents strong feminist characters in, “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale”. The characters such as a Wife of Bath, an old hag, and also a Queen from “Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale,” play a feminist character in the male-dominated society during that time. Through these three characters, we see strong examples of feminism.

The Canterbury Tales, the most famous and revolutionary work of Geoffrey Chaucer, is a collection of twenty-four tales presented in the form of a story-telling contest by pilgrims who are traveling from London to Canterbury. In my viewpoint, The Canterbury Tales can be understood as a representation of the English society at Chaucer's time as it documents several of the social tensions of life in the late Middle Age. The choice of setting the tales as part of a pilgrimage allowed the author to cover a wide range of social roles with varying hierarchical positions and occupations. Therefore, the tales depict a number of the evolving themes by that time in many segments of the society, such as the ones presented in The Wife of Bath tale: the

The Canterbury Tales is a story that incorporates a multitude of stories told by a multitude of characters. Written by Geoffrey Chaucer, he devises a novel in which each character has to narrate a total of four stories as part of a competition; on their way to visit Saint Thomas Becket, the characters would tell two stories going and two stories returning from the journey. The perspective changes through each story, and each story is introduced by a general, opening, third person prologue. Though many of the characters got to share some ideas, Chaucer unfortunately passed away before his story’s entirety. As a result, a winner was never officially clarified. Needless to say, it is evident that the clear winner would be the Miller’s Tale.