The Importance Of Sexuality In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales?

Sex! Sex! Sex! Most people do it, most people want to know about it, yet it is often a taboo subject for research and debate. And what could be more entertaining than sexuality in Geoffrey Chaucer’s writing? There’s sex, satire, and Middle English language! Sarcasm aside, sexuality in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is interesting because of the amount and variety Chaucer presents. Because sex is taboo, it is inherently intriguing in its own right simply because of secretive factor. Even though people assume sex was never discussed before the late 1960s during the Sexual Revolution, a lot of time existed before that, and sex and “dirty humor” was prevalent during Chaucer’s time—and Chaucer certainly is ready to showcase that. Sexuality can be found throughout The Canterbury Tales, but most noticeably in “The Miller’s Tale” with gender roles and Alisoun, in “The Reeve’s

Whether or not the events were rape are often distrusted, especially for the two women: the wife and the daughter. For the context of this paper, I will be copying the definition of rape set forth by Barnett “as any sexual violation of female will and sexual desire” (146). I acknowledge men can be raped, however for this paper we are focusing on Barnett’s definition to keep one cohesive theme.

One argument that comes up every time the rape scene involving the daughter is discussed is whether or not it is really rape. Going with the above definition, this event is definitely rape. It may not have been considered rape during Chaucer’s time, but with context from the story, it was considered wrong. The sexual act is talked about in lines 4175-4182 in Chaucer:

“This lange nyght ther tydes me na reste

But yet na fors, al sal be for the beste For John” seyde he, “als evere moot I thryve If that may, yon wenche wil I swyve

Som esement has lawe yshapen us,

For, John, ther is a lawe that says thus:

That gif a man in a point be