Attitudes of Marriage in Chaucers the Canterbury Tales
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.
One example of corruption in marriage is The Miller’s Tale. This tale includes a lecherous clerk, a vain clerk, and an old man entangled in a web of deceit and adultery construed by a married women. It is obvious in this story that almost each of these characters show complete disregard to the institution of marriage. The two men, Nicholas and Absalon, both try to engage in adulterous affairs with Alison, the old man’s wife. Both of the men are guilty of trying to seduce Alison, which shows their indifference towards the sanctions and laws of marriage. Still Alison, who should be the wiser, also breaks the laws of marriage. She takes Nicholas because she wants to, just as she ignores Absalon because she wants to. Lines 104-109 of the Miller’s Tale show Alison’s blatant disrespect for her marriage to "Old John" and her planned deceit: "That she hir love hym graunted atte laste, And swoor hir ooth, by seint Thomas of Kent That she wol been at his commandment, Whan that she may hir leyser wel espie. Myn housbonde is so ful of jalousie That but ye wayte wel and been privee…"
On the contrary, Alison’s husband loved her more than his own life, although he felt foolish for marrying her since she was so young and skittish. This, in turn, led him to keep a close watch on her whenever possible. The Miller’s main point in his story is that if a man obtains what he wants from God or from his wife, he won’t ask questions or become jealous.
In The Canterbury Tales Chaucer demonstrates many themes such as lust, greed, and poverty. During the Canterbury tales the travelers the author himself is in the tale and he describes every character in detail. Most importantly in The Wife of Bath there is numerous examples of poverty. Thought out the tale Chaucer introduces to us a man who couldn’t control himself because of lust. As a result, he gets punished by the queen.
Women are prizes to be won over in this tale. Competition for women is portrayed throughout the entire story. This competition leads to lies and deceit which overall creates an unstable conflict. But, because of the way of life, the people who don’t lie and deceit still lose out in the end. Therefore, Chaucer teaches us that life isn’t fair and that people don’t always get what they deserve.
Nelson, Marie. "Biheste is Dette: Marriage promises in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales." 2001. Dept. of English, Wentworth University. 15 July 2003 <http://www.wentworth.edu/nelson/chaucer>
The Attitudes Toward Marriage in Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice Jane Austin wrote the novel Pride and Prejudice in 1813. The novel provides a great deal of information and gives us a detailed insight to the different attitudes towards marriages at the time. Pride and Prejudice is focused and written about the lifestyles among "gentry". The "gentry" was the middle to upper class citizens in England. In the novel Jane Austin shows us that social status is a very important factor and that is was essential to have connections with people higher up in the gentry.
The Virtue of Men and Women in The Canterbury Tales People never change. In every town you will always be able to find the "rich guy," the "smart guy," the "thief," and the "chief." It has been that way since the first man was swindled out of his lunch. Throughout his life, Geoffrey Chaucer encountered every kind of person and brought them to life for us in "The Canterbury Tales," a collection of short stories written in the 1300's. There are tales of saints, tales of promiscuity, tales of fraud, and tales of love.
In the Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chaucer illustrates the different perspective between men and women on the concept of marriage and love. In The Wife of Bath’s tale, it is shown the woman appreciating marriage and wanting to be able to love a man unconditionally as where in The Miller’s Tale, love isn’t anything, but sex with the man in the story. In accordance with Chaucer, the complication with marriage is that men are consumed by sexual desire and are easily abused by women like The Wife of Bath. As noticed, The Miller’s Tale is all about adultery. “Just like men, the wives have secrets, as does God”, says the Miller. Both have information that the other do not know about that are sacred and better left unsaid.
In the Miller’s Tale, the story tells of a carpenter and his wife, Allison and how she is pursued by multiple men. The first man to pursue her is Nicolas, a man boarding with the Miller. When the carpenter is away he begins flirting with Allison in hopes of making love. Originally she refuses, but eventually she gives in to his will. Chaucer seems to be pointing out that women are easily swayed by temptation by showing us that Allison is unable to stop herself from making love with Nicolas. In addition Chaucer is also showing us how disloyal women can by using Allison’s extramarital affair as an example. However this stereotyping is not just limited to women in the miller tale but also reaches men too. Later in the story, Nicolas manages to convince the carpenter that there is going to be a massive flood and that he should hide. However this is all just a lie, which Nicolas is using to get the carpenter out of the way so he can be with Allison. Through the carpenter, it seems as if Chaucer is pointing out that men are generally gullible and easily fooled. The stereotyping continues when Absolon enters the story and attempts to woo the likes of Allison. Absolon is unsuccessful in his attempt to woo her however, and Allison tricks him by pretending to offer him ...
By comparing the prologue with the opening of the tale, the reader can understand that the narrative voice of the Merchant signifies contrary to what is denotatively stated. The Merchant opens the tale deriding the institution of marriage:
In his story titled "The Canterbury Tales" Chaucer seems to truly admire some of the pilgrims while displaying disdain and sarcasm towards the others. The pilgrims that he most seems to admire are the Knight, the Oxford Clerk and the Parson. The knight he seems to admire based on his notation of all the campaigns in which the knight has participated in service to just causes. Chaucer makes mention of the knight 's worthiness, wisdom and humility "Though so illustrious, he was very wise And bore himself as meekly as a maid." (67,68 Chaucer). It seems as though Chaucer admires the knights great ability both in warfare and practicing what he preaches. This can be seen in his description of all those he seems to admire in the tale. The Oxford Clerk
I detest the thought of enforced subordination!” (Robinson 130). Martha, a woman of intelligence and free thought, will not merely follow her husband’s orders and will blindly. This non compliance marks her as a woman who is going against the duty of a woman to attend to her husband’s every whim. Maria is also inclined to view her marriage as a negative. She regrets the endeavour and laments that, “in my haste to escape from a temporary dependence, and expand my newly fledged wings, in an unknown sky, I had been caught in a trap, and caged for life” (Wollstonecraft 233). The marriage of Martha’s parents shows how cruel a man can be toward his wife concerning her opinion. When confronted by his wife he replies, “[y]ou have no business ever to speak” (Robinson
Courtly love is extremely evident throughout “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” and allows the development of each character within the plot. Courtly love was believed to be originated in France during the 12th century and eventually spreading to other countries in Europe, influencing authors, such as Geoffrey Chaucer, throughout. English courts, which handled marriages, practiced the art of courtly love from the 12th century to the 14th century, during which marriages were pre-arranged and had little to do with love. A marriage was not based on love, rather on what each participant brought to his or her spouse and families. As love and romance was not a portion of marriage, it became an acceptable practice to seek another romancer outside of the marriage, as long as the spouse adhered to the strict rules of chastity and fidelity (http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/courtly-love.htm). Furthermore, courtly love was only practiced between a man and woman of some sort of noble status, typically between...
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, (written c. 1387), is a richly varied compilation of fictional stories as told by a group of twenty-nine persons involved in a religious pilgrimage to Canterbury, England during the fourteenth century. This journey is to take those travelers who desire religious catharsis to the shrine of the holy martyr St. Thomas a Becket of Canterbury. The device of a springtime pilgrimage provided Chaucer with a diverse range of characters and experiences, with him being both a narrator and an observer. Written in Middle English, each tale depicts parables from each traveler.
the Wife was able to use her sexuality in order to withhold sexual advances from her husband in order to gain what she wants, such as land and treasure. The Wife continues on to discuss the idea that no man has the ability to lie and be deceitful the way that women do. Actively pursuing the gratification of obtaining all that she wishes, the Wife reveals her manipulation tactics, such as accusing her husband of infidelity, when in reality, she was the one participating in extramarrital affairs. She again incorporates her sexuality into her tactics by stating, “For if I wanted to sell my belle chose, then I could walk fresh as is a rose” (Chaucer), revealing her persuasion for her husbands to provide for her financially beacuse her sexual favors
The short stories “Souls Belated” and “The Yellow Wallpaper” have in common ‘Marriage’ as main theme. However, the marriage is treated quite differently in both short stories. In "Souls Belated", Lydia chooses to take control of her destiny, to deviate from conventions and to choose what is good for her. She is the strongest character of the couple. Whereas, in "The Yellow Wallpaper", the name of the main character who is also the narrator of the story is not known. She is identified as being John’s wife. This woman, contrary to Lydia in "Souls Belated" is completely locked up in her marriage. This essay will first describe and compare the characters of Lydia and John's wife in the context of marriage, and then it will look at how marriage is described, treated and experienced by couples in these two short stories.
Chaucer's society represents every social class. In doing so, it shows what it takes to actually make a society function. The different people carry different stories to share. These stories carry lessons learned in hopes of sharing them with others so that they may not end up in the same predicaments. After all, that is the main point of sharing stories, isn't it?