essay

Running head: CHAUCER’S WOMEN CHARACTER 1

CHAUCER’S WOMEN CHARACTER 2

Tianyang Shen

2/28/2020

Bus3920 paper1

Prof. Disa Gambera

Women Reputation

In this paper, the author of The Legend of Good Women: Chaucer's Purgatorio,” works on character of Chaucer's women. The first character that enhances the women is their physical appearance. The first women are Priscilla Martin, who focuses on the wife and Prioress. The two individuals form the theory of “misfits.” The theory states that women are mostly unfit for some role that they take. Despite the factor that some women are taken to be unsuitable for some purposes, Second Nun is described to be best suited in the responsibility given and satisfied with the roles given.

The second characteristic of Chaucer’s women is that is coined within the religious and courtly tradition. According to the Wife of Bath's Prologue, there is no any anti-feminine satire in the men story, but there is criticism of women based on the available religious message. The religious text compels women to be submissive to their husbands. Notably, the author stated, "In love, it was the lady who was superior. The fact made the women … A wife was completely subordinate to her husband ...”. Therefore the two characteristics affect how women compete with men for influence and power. The two traits point women as weaker characters who cannot compete fairly with men.

Despite the challenges that women face, such as little access to the job, which prevented them from inheriting or owning their properties, women strive to get ahead in the world. Alisoun one of the characters in “Wife of Bath” depicts some traits of the women that keep them ahead in the world. The secular voices of females portray women as voluble speakers. Notably, Alisoun has one of the prologues twice length article describing the theme of gender, sexuality, religious and faith. According to “The Wife of Bath’s” the author has detailed experience in marriage and sex experience.

The well-versed experience in the review of the literature of sex and marriage by Alisoun is grounded in her familiarity of the subjects. Additionally, some of the women characters depict knowledge of the women in the Holy Scriptures. The handling of the different episodes and quotations supports the skilful thinking of the women, which keeps them ahead in the world. The women s’ knowledge assists them in handling different comic debates on sex and marriage from the scripture. Lastly, women can control some of the challenges that affect them. Notably, the article presents one female character who pretends to be dead in efforts to make the husband feel guilty. Additionally, the lady uses her helplessness to acquire power and authority from the husband despite her little education.

The Wife of Bath, who is one of the Chaucer's is definitely a "misfit" in terms of a vocation with a perfect image of femininity captured in a male-dominated world with strict rules. Despite the disadvantages women face in the world, Bath's wife conquers all the male tradition by reverting. Bath's wife uses traditional ideas and expression, which she bends them down to suit her purpose. Bath's wife uses the knowledge and experience as a wife too, professional cloth maker, trading and her experience with the different social class to fight for her space and respect in the patriarchal society. Similarly, Alison uses her bad and good experiences and skills to manipulate her husbands to acquire her own money and independence to gain sovereignty.

The Prioress is a female character in General Prologue tale. Prioress, a woman in convert, fails to comply with the rules that expected the nuns to go for journeys to seek shrines and going for pilgrimages. The Prioress also breaks the rules of the monks by possessing a dog that she feeds instead of feeding the food to the poor in society. The Prioress is a female character who gains position in a monastery by means of the endowment. Prioress also holds women and children with high regards than men who she believes they are sinners.

Chaucer does not condemn the women's character in his tales despite their unscrupulous behaviors because he wanted to show concern about social life in the secular society. The women's positions and status in the male-dominated society are depicted with the social reputations portrayed by Bath's wife. Chaucer's writing follows an instructive nature of tales in teaching morals by advising readers about personal behavior (Durán, 2013). The female narrators and characters in Canterbury Tales represent women's gender, and the patriarchal power structure in traditional society and how being a woman is an undesirable position that is prone to oppression.

References

Durán, P. (2013). From evidence to results. Does our behaviour condemn us?. Archivos Argentinos De Pediatria, 111(1), 5-7. doi: 10.5546/aap.2013.eng.5