Throughout my college career, I have read The Canterbury Tales three times; each time, I find myself devoted to "The Wife of Bath's Tale." The tale encompasses the unfamiliar concept of strong, authoritative women in a male-dominant period.
This tale tells the story of a knight who rapes a young maiden; because of his actions, the knight faces life-threatening consequences. Instead of facing death, the queen presents a challenge to the knight - if he wants to live, he must learn what women desire most in the world; once he discovers it, he must tell the queen within one year. He travels for months, seeking the answer with no luck. One day, he ventures across the loathly lady; in return for presenting him with the solution, the knight must spend the rest of his life with her. After he reveals that women desire power over men in relationships, the loathly lady demands the knight to marry her. The knight is furious at the turn of events. In the end, the lady asks the knight to choose: have an elderly wife who is faithful, or a young partner who is unfaithful. The knight leaves the choice up to her, and she is overjoyed. The once loathly lady is now a youthful-looking, faithful wife, and the couples lives happily ever after.
In the tale, the men fall in line with the rules of the women, most notably the queen and the loathly lady. As a woman, it is inspiring to see women take on powerful positions. Furthermore, the main focus of this project is exposing the dynamics of gender.
Emma Lipton argues that Chaucer is advocating for social change in which female superiority overthrows a patriarchal society. In her research, Lipton also notes that rather than reducing women to passive and obedient beings, "The Wife of Bath's Tale" provides women with a powerful voice.
Susan Carter expresses that in "The Wife of Bath's Tale," Chaucer is promoting radical change. Through the use of the "loathly lady" motif, Chaucer is reducing the concept of gender roles. In the tale, the knight submits to her, listening to her every word and following through with her favors. As for the queen, she also exerts authority over the king. Not only does the entire king's court consist of women, but they all also implement equitable punishments and rules for those that do wrong, such as the knight.
Anne McTaggart addresses the unusual gender dynamic in the tale; it is different from anything seen in the Middle Ages. In her article, McTaggart brings up "male surrender" which particularly exists in both the knight and the king. Throughout the text, both men are relinquishing their males status to that of strong females, specifically the queen and the loathly lady.
"The Wife of Bath's Tale" was way ahead of its time. Geoffrey Chaucer incorporated ideas that citizens are fighting for in the present-day. The gender dynamic in this tale allows women to feel empowered and recognize the opportunities they can achieve.
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ReplyDeleteHi Allison.
ReplyDeleteThis was a very insightful post! I think you have been doing a great job! I must say something I learned from your post was the idea of the male surrender being so uncommon. I would assume that men nowadays are used to surrendering to woman, but back then that was way more frowned upon. I have a similar topic to you accept I choose to focus on the humor Miller Tale and how there is this gender role dynamic that is not relevant to the time period. So, something that made me think more about my topic was when you said that Chaucer brought up topics and rights that people are still fighting for today. This is so true with the feminist movements and woman's equality marches. I am sure that the woman from both out tales if they lived in 2020 would be strong willed woman who still fight for their rights.
Hi Allison! I definitely learned a lot from your post. Reading about what various authors said about Chaucer's "Wife of Bath's Tale" truly allowed me to think differently about the story. The statement by Carter about promoting radical change really made me think. Was this truly what Chaucer had been doing? It definitely could have been. I learned that Chaucer might have been fighting for social change in which patriarchy is overthrown. This gives me a brand new perspective when reading the tale. I loved reading your post! It was a very interesting topic to learn about.
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