Gender Roles In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales
In most of the tales (the ones we read), practically all of the women’s roles were traditional; getting married young, having kids, working around the house, and being subservient to their husbands. Chaucer of course represents this aspect of society in such a way that at first it seems like he supports these roles, but upon closer inspection they are so overly expressed that it’s clear that Chaucer is critiquing them. Fairness barely exists either in these tales, either the man gets his way, or the woman gets her way, there’s hardly any instances when both parties are happy with the outcome. There are three main stories in which the women play a unique role;
The Merchant’s Tale, The Knight’s Tale, and The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. All of them show that women are deceitful, …show more content…
Fearing that May would run off if given the chance, because she’s young, beautiful, and a woman, he forces her to stay by his side at all times. “For he is blind, and that quite suddenly,/ And with this loss the fire of jealousy/ So burns his heart that in his grief and pain/ He wishes both his wife and he were slain./ He wanted her to himself in death and life,/ Neither a mistress nor again a wife,/” (282).
Even in her current circumstances May still finds a way to make a wax mold of January’s garden key to give to Damian. It then cuts to a discussion between Pluto and Proserpina, where they debate what to do about this love triangle. Pluto decides that because women are so treacherous he shall restore January’s sight if/when May and Damian are entwined. Proserpina states that since men are so lewd she shall give May, and all women, the ability to explain their way out of any situation. Thus when May convinces January to assist her in climbing the pear tree where
Damian is waiting, and they commit the lustful act, January’s sight is restored. However May is able to come up with an excuse saying that: “But, sir, a man who wakens out of sleep/Is
The Merchant’s Tale, The Knight’s Tale, and The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. All of them show that women are deceitful, …show more content…
Fearing that May would run off if given the chance, because she’s young, beautiful, and a woman, he forces her to stay by his side at all times. “For he is blind, and that quite suddenly,/ And with this loss the fire of jealousy/ So burns his heart that in his grief and pain/ He wishes both his wife and he were slain./ He wanted her to himself in death and life,/ Neither a mistress nor again a wife,/” (282).
Even in her current circumstances May still finds a way to make a wax mold of January’s garden key to give to Damian. It then cuts to a discussion between Pluto and Proserpina, where they debate what to do about this love triangle. Pluto decides that because women are so treacherous he shall restore January’s sight if/when May and Damian are entwined. Proserpina states that since men are so lewd she shall give May, and all women, the ability to explain their way out of any situation. Thus when May convinces January to assist her in climbing the pear tree where
Damian is waiting, and they commit the lustful act, January’s sight is restored. However May is able to come up with an excuse saying that: “But, sir, a man who wakens out of sleep/Is