Important Female Roles: Don Juan Canto by Lord Byron and The Miller’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer

1510 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The role of the nineteenth-century female in literature

In Don Juan Canto 1 by Lord Byron and The Miller’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer, women play cardinal roles in the development and advancement of the pieces. In the 17th and 18th century, women were still considered to be the masters of deceit by using their feminine wiles to entice men. In both of these pieces, women are the catalyst to the embarrassment and loss of livelihood that the main male characters face. As is seen in much of the literature of these times, women were typically the main reason for any misfortunates that the men faced because of their “natural” ability to tempt the ways of men. As it began with Adam and Eve, “when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” (Genesis 3:6) The depiction of women as temptresses has been perpetuated ever since, and is upheld in literature such as these pieces.

Despite Don Juan’s namesake, the piece written by Lord Byron is ironic in that instead of Don Juan being the accoster of women, he is the one that is being pursued. Donna Julia is a woman that is in need of love because she had a married a man more than twenty years her senior, and whilst his personality was not unpleasant it was not pleasant either. Donna Julia quickly recognizes her feelings for Don Juan, and even though she is married, she decides to pursue him even though she knows that it is wrong. She manages to convince herself that her love surpasses her morals, and she is so far in her delusions that when her husband confronts her, she manages to turn the blame on him and leaves him a “foolish figure”(Byron 1282). He and Alfonso...

... middle of paper ...

...nage to escape their just dues and instead make the men involved in their schemes suffer. The depiction of women as temptresses and deceivers empowered by their feminine wiles is one that has been perpetuated for many years, and is further encouraged by Lord Byron and Geoffrey Chaucer’s portrayal of women in Don Juan and The Miller’s Tale in The Canterbury Tales.

Works Cited

Byron, Lord. "Don Juan." Trans. Array The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Romantic Period. . 9th ed. New York: W.W Norton & Company Inc., 2012. 673-704. Print.

Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Miller's Prologue and Tale." Trans. Array The Norton Anthology of English Literature: The Middle Ages. . 9th ed. New York: W.W Norton & Company Inc., 2012. 264-280. Print.

“Genesis Chapter 3.” King James Bible Online- Official King James
Version (KJV) Of The Bible. N.p. .n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014

Show More
Related

  • How The Canterbury Tales Corrupt Women

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the medieval ages, women were described as evil creatures that would destroy anyone standing in their way to get what they want. People claimed that women's malicious intentions clouded their judgment from doing the right thing forcing them to be selfish. In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and Malory’s The Death of King Arthur, both focus on women’s behavioral impulses through their dishonesty, manipulation, and their promiscuity.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In 'Lanval' By Geoffrey Chaucer

    1240 Words  | 3 Pages

    Traditional female characteristics and female unrest are underscored in literary works of the Middle Ages. Although patriarchal views were firmly established back then, traces of female contempt for such beliefs could be found in several popular literary works. Female characters’ opposition to societal norms serves to create humor and wish- fulfillment for female and male audiences to enjoy. “Lanval” by Marie De France and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer both show subversion of patriarchal attitudes by displaying the women in the text as superior or equal to the men. However, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” also incorporates conventional societal ideas by including degradation of women and mistreatment of a wife by her husband.

    Read More

  • Competition For Women In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

    873 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Comparing Christina Rossetti’s Goblin Market and William Wordsworth’s The Thorn

    1707 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...seful miscommunication between men and women. Lastly, when looking through the imagined perspective of the thoughtless male tricksters, the reader is shown the heartlessness of men. After this reader’s final consideration, the main theme in each of the presented poems is that both authors saw women as victims of a male dominated society.

    Read More

  • Human or Husk: Female Agency in The Knight's Tale and The Miller's Tale

    1702 Words  | 4 Pages

    Parry, Joseph D. "Interpreting Female Agency and Responsibility in The Miller's Tale and The Merchant's Tale." 80.2 (2001): 133-67. Academic Onefile. Web. 16 May 2013.

    Read More

  • The Canterbury Tales And The Wife Of Bath's Tale

    567 Words  | 2 Pages

    Some say women can get the worst out of a man, but in The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1485, proves it. The tales were originally written as a collection of twenty four tales, but has been narrowed down to three short tales for high school readers. The three tales consist of “The Miller”, “The Knight”, and “The Wife of Bath” along with their respective prologues. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer shows the weak but strong role of women throughout the “The Knight’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” to contrast different human characteristics and stereotypes on the spectrum of people.

    Read More

  • Women in Homer's Odyssey, Joyce's Ulysses and Walcott's Omeros

    1686 Words  | 4 Pages

    This essay explores the role of women in Homer's Odyssey, James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Derrick Walcott's Omeros (1990), epics written in very different historical periods.  Common to all three epics are women as the transforming figure in a man's life, both in the capacity of a harlot and as wife.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In Machiavelli's The Prince

    1486 Words  | 3 Pages

    While neither Machiavelli’s The Prince nor Shakespeare’s Henry V focus explicitly on gender roles, they both make assumptions and implications sufficient to illustrate their opinions about the nature and place of women in relation to men. In Machiavelli’s The Prince, men and women are depicted in traditional gender roles with women as tricky and unreliable, but ultimately yielding to men who are portrayed as tough and immovable. Shakespeare’s Henry V acknowledges these ideas, but also portrays women as able to influence events within the small domain they are given.

    Read More

  • Much Ado About Nothing: Beatrice, Portia and Marriage

    525 Words  | 2 Pages

    In addition, this relationship illustrates the "cuckold" fear that is very pertinent during Shakespeare's time. Claudio is easily wooed into believing Don John's fabrication about Hero's infidelity. Since women were considered possessions, this infidelity is the ultimate betrayal and a mortal wound to Claudio's self esteem. In reality, Hero had remained the chaste and virtuous model of the Elizabethan woman. Source: Hays, Janice. "Those "soft and delicate desires": Much Ado and the Distrust of Women". Lenz, Carolyn Ruth Swift, Greene, Gayle, and Neely, Carol Thomas Ed., The Woman's Part: Feminist Criticism of Shakespeare. University of Illinois Press: Chicago, 1980.

    Read More

  • The Canterbury Tales

    842 Words  | 2 Pages

    In both the Miller’s Tale and the Wife of Bath’s Tale, Chaucer uses his characters and stories in order to project various stereotypes to the reader. Although varying a tad bit throughout the book, the tone that seems to be drawn from the stories is that women are manipulating, sinful, and power hungry, while men are considered gullible and rash. Its through understand and analyzing these stereotypes that we can fully understand what Chaucer’s stories are trying to convey to us.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles In Don Quixote By Miguel De Cervantes

    1349 Words  | 3 Pages

    The story of Marcela is first encountered second hand through a male character who describes her in the most negative way. In his criticism “Competing Narrative Discourses: (fe)male Fabulation in the Episode of Grisóstomo and Marcela,” John P. Gabriele agrees that Marcela is misinterpreted by the male characters who describe her to Don Quixote (509). The men plea that she is very cruel and “does more harm in this land than the plague” (Cervantes 85). Even though Marcela has asserted her independence and rejected a countless number of men desiring to obtain her love, the men still objectify her by “waiting to see where her haughtiness will end and who will be the fortunate man to conquer so difficult a nature” (Cervantes 85). Referring to her as something to be “conquered” demonstrates how women were respected as nothing more than property and a source of pride. Yvonne Jehenson describes Marcela’s situation as “a male fantasy, a microcosmic image of man’s gender-inflected wish fulfillment” (Gabriele 510). This explains why the men have so much built up frustration towards Marcela for being the complete opposite of their

    Read More

  • Chaucer's Views on Women: Griselda and the Wife of Bath's the Loathly Lady

    3022 Words  | 7 Pages

    As a man fascinated with the role of women during the 14th Century, or most commonly known as the Middle Ages, Chaucer makes conclusive evaluations and remarks concerning how women were viewed during this time period. Determined to show that women were not weak and humble because of the male dominance surrounding them, Chaucer sets out to prove that women were a powerful and strong-willed gender. In order to defend this argument, the following characters and their tales will be examined: Griselda from the Clerk's Tale, and the Wife of Bath, narrator to the Wife of Bath's Tale. Using the role of gender within the genres of the Canterbury Tales, exploring each woman's participation in the outcomes of their tales, and comparing and contrasting these two heroines, we will find out how Chaucer broke the mold on medievalist attitudes toward women.

    Read More

  • Othello

    1151 Words  | 3 Pages

    Shakespeare illustrates the injustices done to women by demonstrating the treatment Desdemona and Emilia received after having been framed of adultery. Because both women are though of cheating on their husbands, they no longer fit in society’s model of an exemplary wife. Despite having proved their affection for their husbands countless of times, not having a pure image led to Iago and Othello mistreating of the women they once loved. Once both women began to stand up for themselves and challenge the authority of their husbands, the repercussions of their bravery were both women’s death. Which shows, women’s only source of authority was their reputation as a wife. Once they lost that status, they no longer held any form or respect in society or with their husband’s.

    Read More

  • Power Of Women In Othello

    1037 Words  | 3 Pages

    During the Elizabethan era women had a status of subordination towards men. They had a role to marry and oblige to their husband’s wishes. Shakespearean literature, especially illustrates how a woman is psychologically and physically lesser to their male counterpart. The play, Othello, uses that aspect in many different ways. From a Feminist lens others are able to vividly examine how women were subjected to blatant inferiority. Being displayed as tools for men to abuse, women were characterized as possessions and submissive; only during the last portion of the play did the power of women take heed.

    Read More

  • Treatment of Women in Ancient Literature

    2408 Words  | 5 Pages

    Women were often subjects of intense focus in ancient literary works. In Sarah Pomeroy’s introduction of her text Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves, she writes, “Women pervade nearly every genre of classical literature, yet often the bias of the author distorts the information” (x). It is evident in literature that the social roles of women were more restricted than the roles of men. And since the majority of early literature was written by men, misogyny tends to taint much of it. The female characters are usually given negative traits of deception, temptation, selfishness, and seduction. Women were controlled, contained, and exploited. In early literature, women are seen as objects of possession, forces deadly to men, cunning, passive, shameful, and often less honorable than men. Literature reflects the societal beliefs and attitudes of an era and the consistency of these beliefs and attitudes toward women and the roles women play has endured through the centuries in literature. Women begin at a disadvantage according to these societal definitions. In a world run by competing men, women were viewed as property—prizes of contests, booty of battle and the more power men had over these possessions the more prestigious the man. When reading ancient literature one finds that women are often not only prizes, but they were responsible for luring or seducing men into damnation by using their feminine traits.

    Read More

More about Important Female Roles: Don Juan Canto by Lord Byron and The Miller’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer

Open Document