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Throughout the course of human history, literary works of various styles and genres across multiple cultures have had varying depictions of both genders. A literary work’s depiction of gender, particularly females, is generally dependent on the culture and/or society its author hail from as well as other factors such as regional and political ones. Despite such differences, literary works can share similarities in the depiction of genders. Antigone and The Canterbury Tales are prime examples of such types of literary works. Despite that nearly two millennia past between the publication of the two-respective works, the two have similar as well as contrasting portrayals of women.
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, A Medieval Era Media? In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer sets a clear set of stories. Everything is planned and introduced to us beforehand. Prior to diving in to the tales, the General Prologue is brought forward.
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” begins with an unequivocal incident of sexual assault, yet how that assault and the question of consent are interpreted are complicated in light of Suzanne Edwards’ essay, “The Rhetoric of Rape.” Edwards’ essay provides a new historicist lens to provide a context in which the reader can perhaps reconcile the problematic nature of sexual assault that Chaucer inserts into the “loathly lady” narrative. The rhetoric employed by the law in regards to rape complicates Chaucer’s knight’s crime by creating an atmosphere of ambiguity that raises more questions than answers. The disconnect that occurs between the rapist and his victim seems quite abominable on the part of Chaucer and his narrator in that it is quickly forgiven
Giovanni Boccaccio sets The Decameron in a time period when women are regarded as holding lower social position than men in a community. In the Biblical text, the roles of women are almost always severely restricted. Women are not allowed to hold power or have a significant position in a society, but to maintain in the positions of wives and mothers, who only care about family. In The Decameron, Boccaccio reveals that women could hold an upper hand role in the relationship of male and female. Boccaccio exceeds the role of women, contrary to church teaching by depicting women as patient, more lustful, and more intelligent figures than men.
Beowulf and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” are both narratives in which gender acts as an important theme within their individual communities; both have underlying meanings when it comes to defining what the role men and women in a good community should be. Or in other words, both stories paint a vivid picture of the role of women during the medieval time period, by suggesting that one gender had more power over another. However, these two narratives take alternative paths when expressing their views; Beowulf conveys its message through what is missing, while “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” incorporates satire and uses explicit narrative when telling the experience of a woman that is highly different from other women in her time. Furthermore, another difference that is appealing to the reader’s eyes, besides the way the two narratives reflect to women’s role in medieval times, is that men become the hero in Beowulf, while “the wife”, so a woman, becomes the authority figure in the story of “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” I want to first introduce the two main differences between the two narratives and then I will explain how regardless of the differences, both of these narratives’ main goal is to show that women had less power and a good community back that time was male dominated.
Femininity and Animal Motifs in Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale The Miller’s Tale from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales illustrates Alisoun, the sole female character of the tale, through comparisons of animals and natural life. There are implications throughout the tale that implicate that Chaucer was intending to represent the character’s sexual liberation as something that is innately possible in all women. In this essay, we will explore the ways in which the narrative structures Alisoun’s feminity, othering her from her male-counterparts in the tale.
Geoffrey Chaucer was considered a cornerstone of English literature. Born and raised in London, Chaucer started writing 1370 and continued tell his death. Chaucer’s last writing was the Canterbury Tales. He never did fully finish this writing but he got far enough to show us the characters of this work. Characters that he developed in such a way that people still continue to look back and read his work.
Two stories, regardless of being written in 14th Century Europe, they still have valuable lessons. “The Pardoner’s Tale”, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is a short story from The Canterbury Tales which is a book of short stories of those who traveled to The Canterbury Cathedral with Chaucer. “The Pardoner’s Tale” holds similar qualities to Giovanni Boccaccio’s short story “Federigo’s Falcon” from The Decameron. For example, both of these stories share the same interwoven literary elements such as: irony and symbolism. Through these the authors skillfully portray a battle of overcoming fate.
“The Poynt of Remembraunce”: Chaucer’s Presentation of Women as Literary Characters Women in the Middle Ages generally had little opportunity to provide influence either in life or in literature. Little is known of their lives and thoughts because little was written from their viewpoint. Yet in an age and a society dominated by the “male gaze,” certain of Chaucer’s works take a different track, exploring the concept of women as characters. His presentation of Dido in The House of Fame and Anelida in Anelida and Arcite deviates from the traditional complaint genre, shifting the perspective to that of a female protagonist.
Although not situated within Italy, Marguerite de Navarre was a French royal during the later half of the Renaissance. She is perhaps the only well-known woman to take on creating a work that was heavily inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron, by creating her Heptaméron. Within it, she creates a piece that has a voice for women, by women. Boccaccio, of course, dedicated the Decameron to the ‘graziosissime donne’, those poor ladies who have no outlet like men do to distract them from their feminine longings. He tells the reader countless times that he is on the side of women, yet, as Suzuki (1993, p. 237) states “In the Introduction to Book IV…he repeatedly complains of being mutilated…because of his allegiance to the ladies.”
The Presentation of Gender in the Wife of Bath as a Response to Medieval Misogyny While the exploration of gender and power through literature was not new to Chaucer, the Canterbury Tales seemed to serve as a vessel for the cumulation of his unfinished ideas and storylines concerning women and the role that men play in their lives. The theme of gender and power is discernible throughout a suitable amount of the Canterbury Tales. Arguably, the story in which this theme is presented in the most impactful way is the Wife of Bath’s Tale. Chaucer exhibits a rebuttal of medieval misogyny through the Wife of Bath’s Tale, championing the Wife of Bath as an icon of female independence. This is presented through the language used to describe the Wife
This allowed for new stories to explore new morals and ideas and a group of people to become influenced by new ideas like previous civilizations had done in their beginning in a literature rebirth. In those times, most stories were oral. Due to this, there was not much choice in choosing what someone wanted to hear, meaning these stories were passed on and told endlessly, meeting many ears. In Canterbury Tales, matters of class, religion, female roles, and the church were discussed. When Geoffrey Chaucer wrote this book, he provided a commentary on these topics.
The Devil in Her Eyes: Oppression, Allowable Femininity, and Good Versus Evil in Beowulf Beowulf, the lauded Anglo-Saxon epic poem of unknown authorship, contains deeply embedded themes of Good versus Evil, especially between the female characters. Queen Wealtheow and Grendel’s Mother have detailed descriptions based on their contrasting physical appearances, allowing the author to subject them to reduction to body. Both characters, while vastly different in actions and motivators, are strong, passionate women who attempt to protect their progeny at all cost. However, both fall victim to instrumentality as the author assigns honor to Queen Wealtheow’s actions, and forces Grendel’s Mother into a base and despicable role.
GMO’s. Genetically Modified Organisms. Whether you support them or you don’t, they are being used around the world daily through products such as Roundup Ready corn and Bt resistance potatoes. The mixed response to these crops often causes controversy in many areas of food production. One of the more recent controversies being the labeling of food products.
The Canterbury Tales is a series of stories told from the view of different characters. Chaucer uses irony to describe how characters from different social rankings are not defined by their positions and jobs but by their hearts. In the “Wife of Bath’s Tale” the Wife does not let the label of “wife” guide her actions. During this time, wives were inferior to their husbands and tended to stay home because they were dependent on others.