Examining Gender Roles In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales is a book filled with different tales, 29 stories to be exact. These tales are all different and have their own storyline. The Wife of Bath being one of these. It all begins with a knight who sexually assaults a young lady and for this event is told to find what it is that women most desire. Desperate in finding the answer, he makes a deal with an old lady he encounters to get his answer in exchange of doing whatever the old lady may please. This all concludes in the knight being forced to wed the elderly woman and letting her make all the choices and decisions in their relationship. This tale illustrates numerous topics such as sexual assault, breaking stereotypical gender roles, and chauvinism. All of these topics open

To call an old man “father” shows good breeding, and this could be supported from my reading. You say I’m old and fouler than a fen. You need not fear to be a cuckold, then. Filth and old age, I’m sure you will agree” (Chaucer 290). The lady feels like she doesn’t receive any respect since she’s not only a woman, but a woman of an already old age, however, things would be different if she were a man, where she believes she would be treated in a much more positive attitude. Looking deeper into these lines, expounding in the tale, the knight and other men don’t seem to treat elder women, and women in general with the same respect as they would if they were men. We can see that because as a man ages he gains respect, meanwhile, women lose the little respect they already have when they grow

Ahead of him, alone as she was born. Of that maiden, spite of all she said. By very force, he took her maidenhead, this act of violence made such a stir” (Chaucer 282). As read, the knight lusted women. He saw the young lady, who in his eyes was frail and easy to take advantage of, and so he did just that. Even though the women didn’t give consent, he still proceeded to commit his lustful deed. The knight objectified women. He took something very important to her, which was her pureness. At that time, and in current times as well, virginity is something that is still important and