Use Of Masculinity In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, various characters tell stories that reveal Chaucer’s opinion against the church, masculinity, greed, and corruption. Among these stories, “The Miller’s Tale” is an example of how the use of masculinity reveals Chaucer’s voice. The men in the stories revolve around one woman, Alison, to assert their masculinity in some manner. Alison’s husband, the carpenter John, tries to protect Alison because of his age. He fears that Alison’s beauty and his old age would make someone cuckold him. He tries to hide Alison from the outside world so there would be no chance of someone cuckolding him, making him look like a fool. He is afraid of contamination of his image, so he avoids any obstacle that would challenge

He believes that by marrying a woman, working hard, and putting trust in God, he’ll have a good life. His biggest insecurity leads him wanting to hold on and keep Alison encapsulated: “She was eighteen years of age. Jealous he was and kept her in her cage, for he was old, and she was wild and young” (Chaucer 89). John’s biggest insecurity is his old age, but he wants to hold on to Alison knowing that she has a wild nature. Though John seems like he’s protecting Alison from the outside world, he is suppressing her nature; however, this is how he asserts his masculinity. He believes he must be a bigger man by protecting Alison from other men, rather than communicating with Alison about loyalty. This is greedy because he wants full control of her as if she were his personal object. By wanting to protect Alison, he unknowingly reveals another one of his insecurities: being a cuckold. John fears that another man will make love to Alison, but more afraid it would contaminate his image. His view of masculinity coalesces with him trying to keep his image over anything else. This preservation of image and fear of contamination reveals an interpretation of Chaucer’s opposition against the church. In his time the church would fear that another religion would take away their followers, much like how John fears that another man will take Alison. This would result in the Church wanting

They faced humiliation from the very thing that they were trying to avoid using their masculinity. While John tried to protect Alison, he fell down: “The neighbors all came running up in heat and stood there staring at the wretched man […] his arm in falling had been broken double […] no matter what the carpenter asserted it went for nothing, no one was converted” (Chaucer 106). It’s ironic that John held on to Alison and tried to protect her, but he broke his arm. His desire to assert his masculinity backfired on him since he was gullible enough to believe he could save Alison from a flood that Nicholas made up. His attempt to assert his masculinity failed because although no one knows that he is a cuckold, everyone thinks that he’s crazy. It’s interesting that Chaucer uses the word “converted” to describe people’s responses to John. It can be interpreted that Chaucer hints at how the church uses the wrong techniques to attract people and keep their image, which can lead to the downfall of their power, much like John’s literal downfall. For Nicholas and Absalon, they both suffered humiliation: “Absalon had kissed her nether eye and Nicholas is branded on the bum” (Chaucer 106). In their path to assert their masculinity, their actions backfired in the same way. Nicholas tried to make Absalon kiss his behind, but Absalon branded him painfully. This reflects how Nicholas uses astrology to “butt” into people’s