Homosexuality In The Friar's Tale

In Chaucer’s The Friar’s Tale, the Friar uses same-sex doubles, homosocial bonding, and gay signs to imply that the character Summoner is gay in order to insult the pilgrim Summoner and his relationship with the Pardoner.

First off, it would be helpful to define the word “queer”. What exactly does it mean? According to Robert Zeikowitz, “‘Queer’ can thus signify behavior, relationship, or identity occurring at a specific moment. scribe an alternative form of desire that threatens the stability of the dominant norm.” (Zeikowitz) In modern times, the word is usually associated with people who identify with the LGBT community. Some may argue that LGBT issues were irrelevant in medieval times, but they fail to understand that “fictions can be

In the Tale, the yeoman, who later turns out to be the Devil, is described as a happy man wearing green. “A gay yeman, under a forest syde. / A bowe he bar, and arwes brighte and kene; / He hadde upon a courtepy of grene,” (1380-82) At first the color he is wearing does not seem important, but it is acutally a coded sign in order to show the yeoman as queer. “[green] was the color of love; it was a color 'particularly suitable for the clothing of newly-weds'” (CITE) Because the Yeoman and the summoner just met, they are a sort of “newly-wed” in friendship. In addition, as soon as meeting, the two decide to join together in “brotherhood” (keep quotes??) “Of thyn aqueyntance I wolds praye thee, / And eek of bretherdede, if that yow leste.” (1398-99) This new bond between the two men and the added color green of the Yeoman’s coat implies the two characters as “newlyweds" recently joined in bonds of brotherhood” (Pugh) In addition, the Knight’s Yeoman in the General Prologue is also dressed in green. “A YEMAN hadde he and servantz namo / … / And he was clad in cote and hood of grene.” (101-103) This connection between the Yeoman character in the Friar’s Tale and the Yeoman pilgrim implies that the pilgrim Summoner may have a homosexual relationship with the Yeoman. However, if the text is looked at more closely, it can be seen that the Summoner and the Pardoner are accused of being lovers through the use of homosocial