What Is The Theme Of The Lady Of Shalott

“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.

The medieval church taught that women were inferior to men and that they should be compliant and obedient to their fathers and husbands. Men look down to women as their respect for their ladies are limited as in Canterbury Tales were these women start out as beneath men. These same men who feel the need to arrogate women of their dignity find their fate is later put into the women’s hands. Although a women is taciturn and does not speak out to the men and talk of their animadversion toward the men’s behavior, these same ladies have the power to then decide how these men should serve their punishment for their sacrileges and unruly decisions as in the “Wife of Bath’s Tale”, were after his life was saved by an old lady, in return this old women requested to him to “take me as your wife” (p.138). A women’s love and passion should be approached with appreciation and admiration otherwise being inconsiderate and impassionate will turn a women against a man.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem The Canterbury Tales a young Chaucer tells of the people he meets on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas Beckett in Canterbury. One of the most vivacious characters on the pilgrimage is The Wife of Bath. Both the Wife of Bath’s prologue and tale share a common theme of a woman’s control in a relationship with a man. The Wife of Bath and the old hag in her tale share a similar perspective on what women want most in life. In the prologue and tale the reader is exposed to the idea that what women most desire in life is to have control over their husbands and lovers. This tale and its prologue are linked through the way that Dame Alice, the Wife of Bath, fashions the old hag in her tale after herself.

In the time period of the 14th century, many woman faced inequality. Women were not viewed to uphold the same quota as men. Most females were viewed as passive to males and were not able to make many demands in their relationships or make any contributions to their own survival or life. In the “Wife of Bath Tale”, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer gives an insight into the struggles of a woman. Chaucer gives a voice for women who cannot speak for themselves. He creates a tale for the Wife of Bath that includes and questions the societal views of women. Written in the words of a woman, Chaucer undermines what it means to be a female in the fourteenth century who desires independence and

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is considered a work of satire towards medieval society by many literary critics. Chaucer uses the Wife of Bath as a prime way to quip a key fourteenth century practice wherein medieval society is patriarchal from noblemen to peasants. Women are one of the most restrained groups. The Wife of Bath narrates a story mocking male superiority and spouts a pro-women narrative. In this tale, the Wife of Bath shows women not submitting to a man’s world. For this period in time, she is a progressive who implies men are not in control of society which does not fit the mold of women at the time. She infers women are running everything from behind the curtain with men merely being used as puppets.

“The courtly lady…possesses a curiously hybrid gender. While maintaining stereotypically female sexuality, she also holds, in principle at least, the status of a feudal lord.” Burns’ statement insinuates a reversal of power dynamics between man and woman in the courtly love lyric, implying that the woman’s stereotypical beauty and sexuality in courtship, is a gateway to subverting and overpowering the lovesick male, making her a superior lord. The Amour Courtois lyric is deemed inconsistent with the representation of woman as an empowered “feudal lord” due to the sheer objectification of femininity and beauty. Poets such as Geoffrey Chaucer and William Dunbar commend a woman’s aesthetic appeal or satirise the lack of it, thus elevating medieval misogynistic expectations of physical beauty as a feminine necessity that objectifies women under the control of man’s advances. Throughout courtly love lyrics female beauty is a purely frivolous and superficial trait lacking predominant depth, to render woman as a “lord” would be poetically conflicting as the only power exemplified by female subjects in courtship is through the idolisation and sexual lust of the male devotee.

The “Wife of Bath’s Tale” is a story about women, feminism, punishment and power. It starts off in the forest where a noble knight sees a maiden walking through corn and rapes her. Soon after the incident, King Arthur Hears of the crime and subjects the knight to death by beheading. However, the Queen begged Arthur to spare the knight and so he handed the nobleman’s fate over to her. After much thought, the Queen said to the knight “I’ll grant you life if you can tell me what thing it is that women most desire.” (Chaucer, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”) She gave him a year and a day to find the answer and if he was unsuccessful, he would be put to death.

Wealth and property feature heavily in the wife’s portrayal of marriage and along with the issue of her independence is responsible for many of her marital conflicts. The first three husbands "riche and olde" were married each for "hir land and hir tresoor" then discarded as the Wife looks for other prospects. When one of these husbands tries to restrict the Wife’s spending she refuses to let him be both "maister of my body and of my good" so refuses sexual favours in return for her freedom as she will not become a mere possession. She generalizes that women "love no man that taketh or keepth charge" suggesting an element of independence and individualism in 14th century marriage. The wife resents being controlled; she

Elizabethan society was created on the belief the woman had no right or control over their own lives. Women had no choice in what their profession would be, as a matter of fact they weren’t allowed to have a profession such as medicine, politics and law. The only places they were allowed to work were in domestic areas. This essay will be focusing on the taming of the shrew with the role of status of women and attitudes towards marriage and courtship during the Elizabethan era. In Elizabethan society, all that women were considered of was the lower end of men and the weaker gender.

In The Canterbury tales, Chaucer uses The Wife of Bath as a representation of what it was like for Women in the Middle Ages to be striped of equality and bow to the otherwise male dominated society. For the representation of women Chaucer uses the Tales of “The Scholar”, “The Second Nun “The Reeve’s”, and “The Franklin” and many others in a very dry, pretentious manner to steer readers into the view of how a women of the Middle Ages should be as a so called “virtuous” wife or woman. The concept of marriage plays a major part in manifesting the idea of the issues of inferiority of women. The perception rendered as women having to be obedient and inferior figure to their husbands or male counter parts. Chaucer

"Drawing from many sources, Malory develops Lancelot's qualities of self-control, rectitude, and humaneness...the third tale (Lancelot du Lake) concentrates on Lancelot's chivalry inspired by a yet unconsummated passion. Undertaking his quest because of Gwenyver, he becomes the best knight in the world" (Walters xxix). One need not look far into the sixth book to find examples of Lancelot's character. In the beginning of the tale, we are introduced to Sir Lancelot very abruptly with "Of all his knights one was supreme, both in prowess at arms and in nobility of bearing, and this was Sir Lancelot, who was also the favorite of Queen Gwynevere, to whom he had sworn oaths of fidelity" (Malory 118). It is here we are introduced to Lancelot's two primary character traits: that of his being a great knight and that of being faithful to Guinevere. He is not yet the best knight, or the perfect lover, as he has not yet been tested. Lancelot soon feels bored with his life at court, and so searches out adventure. It is during these adventures that

The adulterous affair between King Arthur’s most trusted knight Lancelot, and his wife, Guinevere, is symbolic to the coming of the mischievous serpent in God’s garden as a result to an end of a perfect world. According to the influential work of Sir Thomas Malory at the end of the 15th century, there became one of the major causes of the downfall of Arthur’s Round Table. Through various parts of literature, Lancelot’s romantic character becomes known. In The Knight of the Cart (ca. 1175), by Chrûtien de Troyes Sir Lanceolt rescues Guinevere from the evil knight, Meleagent, and ultimately spends the night with the queen in her chamber. He later listens and obeys every instruction she asks Lancelot to do, such as to do his worst in the Tournament. Another major romance of which Lancelot is the protagonist is the extensive early 13th-century Prose Lancelot, a part of the Vulgate Cycle of Arthurian romances. Here, he is raised by the Lady of the Lake, and by 18 sent to Arthur’s court after realizing his royal percentage. He is given a sword by Guinevere, who knights him in a ceremony of divided loyalties. He goes to act of numerous adventures for the king to earn his reputation, but his adultery with the queen disables his legitimacy to succeed in the quest for the Holy Grail. In the last romance of the cycle, Lancelot and the

One of the most notorious topics of interest in the works of Shakespeare is the role women receive in his plays. The way Shakespeare wrote his plays, women were very submissive to men and had no will and choice of their own. Women were extremely reliant upon the men in their lives, believing that they were inferior and thus following their desire for the women’s lives. This included that marriages were usually arranged by a powerful male, instead of giving the woman the opportunity of choosing marriage for love. It is not surprising that Shakespeare portrayed women in a way that was familiar to him and the time era in which he lived. In A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Taming of the Shrew, both focus on the development of love and not, with

From a feminist critical perspective, it is clear to perceive that her husband’s death was a release of freedom from her marriage. The text describes that at times, she did and did not love her husband. However, love had not mattered anymore because she was now free. Whether they loved each other or not, she would have still been his property. This restriction of freedom was no longer her cross to bear. The death of her husband would pave her a path for a new life.

Once married, it is expected for women to remain faithful to their husbands. Women are expected to have different obligations to men, emphasising the “struggles women face in society” . This is shown in the opening of the poem where the expectation is heightened, “I gave myself to Him-/ And took himself, for Pay”. The speaker is a woman who has just got married, and entirely “gave” herself to him. However, it is clear to see that the same commitment is not reciprocated by the husband,