Kelly Mitchell
997491793
COM 2
Navid Saberi-Najafi
May 13th, 2014
Mutual Marriage
The Canterbury Tales has many stories with multiple meaning and messages, but love is one subject that is argued throughout the book. There are two stories of the book that are discussed quite often on this subject “The Franklin’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”. “The Franklin’s Tale” argues that a marriage where everyone is considered equal is superior while the “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” supports the idea that a marriage best works with a woman being in charge. These two stories argue the two dramatically different opinions of gender relations in marriage, with their own tales as examples to support their position. Since the Wife’s tale is based off of inequality in relationships while the Franklin’s tale is centered around equal gender relations. Due to this the Franklin’s tale is of course the ideal situation.
The claim presented in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” argues that a woman who is free to make her own decisions will reward her husband with a happy marriage. The first hint of the concept of women being dominant begins when the knight is faced with death for raping a woman. Typically this is an automatic death sentence in the kingdom, but the Queen changed the King’s mind so she was put in power over the knight’s life. As stated in the book “he granted him his life on the spot,/and gave him to the queen, completely at her will,/to choose whether she would save or destroy him” (Page 339, lines 40-43). Already at this point the idea of the women having dominion over men is being hinted at, where she has complete control even over his life. In order to save his life the knight was told by the Queen to find what all women want in life, a great...
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...n and in order to stay his advances she gives him an impossible task to win her. However, when he completes the task the mutual respect in the marriage is put to the test. Arveragus wants Dorigen to keep her promise, but when she does Aurelius feels guilty and calls off the dept. This ending shows not only to respect the other gender but also everyone in general. The conclusion further supports the argument that a love based on equality, not just a marriage, is the superior relationship.
The opinions demonstrated in the two tales are extremely unlike, of course with such different stances a point of view will be preferred by different people. In these stories both couples end up in a successful relationship, but one has a stronger base. It will differ from person to person; however, most would agree a marriage based off of equal respect would be the best choice.
Looking back through many historical time periods, people are able to observe the fact that women were generally discriminated against and oppressed in almost any society. However, these periods also came with women that defied the stereotype of their sex. They spoke out against this discrimination with a great amount of intelligence and strength with almost no fear of the harsh consequences that could be laid out by the men of their time. During the Medieval era, religion played a major role in the shaping of this pessimistic viewpoint about women. The common belief of the patriarchal-based society was that women were direct descendants of Eve from The Bible; therefore, they were responsible for the fall of mankind. All of Eve’s characteristics from the biblical story were believed to be the same traits of medieval women. Of course, this did not come without argument. Two medieval women worked to defy the female stereotype, the first being the fictional character called The Wife of Bath from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The second woman, named Margery Kempe, was a real human being with the first English autobiography written about her called The Book of Margery Kempe. In these two texts, The Wife of Bath and Margery Kempe choose to act uniquely compared to other Christians in the medieval time period because of the way religion is interpreted by them. As a result, the women view themselves as having power and qualities that normal women of their society did not.
The story of Januarie's marriage to May and her subsequent infidelity with Damyan allows for not only Chaucer's view of marriage to come through, but also includes the opinions of contemporary writers. Chaucer allows his views to be made known as the narrator and his views could also be said to infiltrate the speeches of the Merchant. Justinus and Placebo's views are also accounted for as the fictional characters also air their opinions on the institution of marriage. In this way, Chaucer has allowed for a fair deal of discussion of marriage.
strong that the two knights feel that it is worth more than life. At one point
Marriage is an aspect of medieval society that strives to remain pure and innocent, but when the sin of lust is compounded, problems start to rise. The marriages during the middle ages are not much different than present day, because they originate by a physical, emotional, and mental attraction between two people of the opposite sex. Chaucer demonstrates several different circumstances dealing with marriages. Most are comic in nature, and illustrate crude, sexual humor (Varnam, 1). The first circumstance that Chaucer addresses is a “January and May,” relationship. This is a situation where an older man falls in love with a scandalous young girl in “The Merchant’s Tale.” In this specific case, she deceives him to believe that she is innocent (Rogers 2: 385). January has a description in “The Merchant’s Tale,” of being single for over sixty years and he has reached a point in his life when he wanted to experience the bliss of marriage. January chooses May because of enticing feelings o...
My initial judgement of the knight in the Wife of Bath’s Tale was that he is a violent rapist that did not deserve to have mercy placed upon him for his crime. In a sickening way, it is possible that the Wife placed the knight in this particular position to get her point across concerning the dominance she has had over men, as mentioned in her prologue (lines 211-223). Rape is often described as a form of forced power, as depicted through the knight. Rather than plain sexual assault, it appears as if the Wife has served out a rhetorical assault of a mental caliber
The love between Averagus and Dorigen is so pure that even when Dorigen, as depressed as she is that she is not with her husband because he is away, is approached by
of the church cheating is considered a sin, a sin on both the part of
In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer’s real opinions about marriage and relationships between men and women are shown. Marriage is an institution viewed upon in many different ways. Some believe it is a consecrated union of two people in order to procreate. On the other hand, there are those who look at it as a social contract which often binds two people that are not necessarily right for each other. Chaucer combines these two beliefs into one major belief. Chaucer seems to look at marriage as an obligation that is constantly dominated by one of its two members, this view being shown in the prologues and tales of the Clerk, the Wife of Bath, and the Miller.
The last scene in the end of the Wife of Bath’s tale when the knight “leave[s] to [her] wise governance the measure,” (line 1230) can be seen as a strategic move by the knight, rather than a true sacrifice of his male dominance to put the lady in power. By learning what women want the most, the knight uses this gain of knowledge to his advantage by granting the lady what she wants the most, in hope of benefitting from his seemingly good deed. This interpretation implies that women are easily manipulated, and that men will always have sovereignty in a relationship whether it’s nonchalantly or not. However, this understanding of the text tries too hard to twist it into an invalid statement. The knight is not being manipulative here, but rather he did learn something through his journey and proved to be surprised when “in utter joy he took her in his arms” (line 1250), after she gave him both options. His act of giving his wife the choice was truly genuine, and gave the woman more
Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, demonstrate many different attitudes and perceptions towards marriage. Some of these ideas are very traditional, such as that illustrated in the Franklin’s Tale. On the other hand, other tales present a liberal view, such as the marriages portrayed in the Miller’s and The Wife of Bath’s tales. While several of these tales are rather comical, they do indeed depict the attitudes towards marriage at that time in history. D.W. Robertson, Jr. calls marriage "the solution to the problem of love, the force which directs the will which is in turn the source of moral action" (Robertson, 88). "Marriage in Chaucer’s time meant a union between spirit and flesh and was thus part of the marriage between Christ and the Church" (Bennett, 113). The Canterbury Tales show many abuses of this sacred bond, as will be discussed below.
him joy; and nurse him when ill as well as be the mother to his heir.
The elaborate characterization in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice allows the reader to further understand the outcomes of the budding relationships and long marriages which she displays. With these distinguished dispositions comes a complexity that applies to several romances in the novel which emphasize Austen’s theme of marriage for true love. In comparing both the personalities and the relationships of Mr. and Mrs. Bennet to those of Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth, we can see how the contradiction to society's expectations of young women marrying for wealth results in a stronger love, and a happy marriage.
In the Middle Ages, when The Canterbury Tales was written, society became captivated by love and the thought of courtly and debonair love was the governing part of all relationships and commanded how love should be conducted. These principles changed literature completely and created a new genre dedicated to brave, valorous knights embarking on noble quests with the intention of some reward, whether that be their life, lover, or any other want. The Canterbury Tales, written in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer, accurately portrays and depicts this type of genre. Containing a collection of stories within the main novel, only one of those stories, entitled “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, truly outlines the 14th century community beliefs on courtly love.
In "The Wife Of Bath’s Tale", women most desire sovereignty over men in relationships. In other words, the power to have dominance over men is the one thing women most desire. I agree with the ideas that in relationship women wish to be dominant over the opposite sex. The only way such power is earned or give is when the man is in a situation where the woman must bail him out of trouble.
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a collection of stories that are heavily influenced by the desire for authority over other individuals and sexual needs. The characters of the Canterbury Tales vary amongst each other; some of the characters are similar yet completely antithetical. The Wife of Bath and The Prioress are introduced in the prologue as complete opposite end of each other. The Wife of Bath fully takes advantage of her sexuality in order to get authority in a dominating patriarchy. She is sexually liberated, married five times and fully expresses herself through her actions and her physical appearance. On the other end of the spectrum, the Prioress represses her sexual needs in order to maintain her ascendancy in the Church, but she yearns for sexual liberty. Her impure mind causes her to shift her attention away from her duties and more onto her lustful fantasy. The Wife of Bath’s desire for sovereignty reflects upon her tale and her as an individual.