English Literature

Mihai-Gabriel Iacob

Faculty of Letters, Romanian Literature and Language - English Literature and Language

FEMALE REPRESENTATION IN THE CANTERBURY TALES

England in the fourteenth century appears to have been trembling over the decades, given
the great variety of tumultuous historical events in that respective period of time. Regarded as
“the best-known poet of the English Middle Ages”1, Geoffrey Chaucer was a contemporary of
the devastating pandemic outbreak, namely the Black Death (1348), and the Peasants’ Revolt
(1381), which is the “first great popular rebellion in English history”2. In addition to that,
Chaucer himself has partaken in several battles of the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453), which
is a discontinuous series of battles between England and France.

Not only has the above-mentioned historical trajectory of England had a profound effect
on Chaucer’s literary work, but his contribution to the “management of public affairs as courtier,
diplomat, and civil servant”3 has, as well. In the light of this, the poet is reckoned to have an
acute sense of observing the society of his times. Amongst his literary works, The Canterbury
Tales is by far the most widely-known out of them. Left uncompleted at his death, it is a
collection of twenty-four tales told by a number of pilgrims. Each and every one of them serves a
different angle of reality through storytelling. However, the author’s aim is to display how the
life looks like through the lenses of people from different levels of society: a man of law, a
knight, a merchant, some religious figures, for instance; even a female’s standpoint is taken into

1
Moss, Joyce, and Lorraine Valestuk. World Literature and Its Times: British and Irish Literature and Its Times:
Celtic Migrations Tothe Reform Bill (Beginnings-1830s) , Part 1 (World Literature and Its Times, 3). Gale Research
Inc, 2000.
2
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. Peasants’ Revolt. Encyclopedia Britannica, 30 Dec. 2022,
https://www.britannica.com/event/Peasants-Revolt. Accessed 22 January 2023.
3
Lumiansky, R.M.. Geoffrey Chaucer. Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Oct. 2022,
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Geoffrey-Chaucer. Accessed 22 January 2023.
consideration in Chaucer’s frame story, meaning the Wife of Bath. Hence, Chaucer has a knack
for unveiling society as it really is.

It is commonly known that, throughout the medieval period, women were perceived as
inferior inhabitants, with their needs always being overlooked. They couldn’t disentangle
themselves from the stereotypes they were given, meaning that women were frequently
mistreated, sexualized, considered deceitful, incompetent and so on. Thus, females were largely
excluded from power positions and weren’t permitted to speak their mind. In spite of this savage
restraint, female characters have emerged a couple of times in medieval literature, including the
Wife of Bath. Amongst a number of Middle English authors, Geoffrey Chaucer created a woman
known as one of the strongest female characters. In portraying her confidently and
authoritatively, he demonstrated her lack of suppression. She proves to be the voice of the truth
right at the beginning of “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”, claiming without a shadow of doubt
that she holds enough authority to “speak of trouble in marriage”4. Given the conservative belief
that a woman must not marry more than once, especially after the death of her spouse, the Wife
of Bath contradicts it by saying that as long as the law allows, nothing can stand in her way of
remarrying.

Furthermore, the Wife of Bath is the archetypal image of “femme fatale”, a woman
responsible for wreaking havoc on her romantic partner. In effect, she “nags her husbands till she
becomes their purgatory”5, in the sense that, since marriage is a relationship based on a man's
autonomy over his wife, she sought out various means to exert control over each of them. The
Wife of the Bath used her body as a means of robbing her husbands of all autonomy through
sexual acts with her. Not only did she derive them from any sense of autonomy, but she also
maintained a constant state of jealousy when it came to them. She knew precisely how to act so
she could get all she wanted, which is specific to the “femme fatale” archetype. Associated with
wealth and luxury6, scarlet is the colour which Chaucer’s Wife of Bath wears, meaning that it’s
proven that she has taken advantage of all her wealthy husbands and changed her condition to the

4
Chaucer, Geoffrey, et al. The Canterbury Tales. Oxford, United Kingdom, Oxford UP, 2011, p. 150.
5
Mead, William E. “The Prologue of the Wife of Bath’s Tale.” PMLA, vol. 16, no. 3, 1901, pp. 388–404. JSTOR,
https://doi.org/10.2307/456482. Accessed 22 Jan. 2023.
6
Ferber, Michael. A Dictionary of Literary Symbols. Cambridge, United Kingdom, Cambridge UP, 2017.
best of her abilities. Plus, Chaucer is prone to highlighting the fact that women should start to
desire what is best for them and not just be given things they presumably deserve.

To sum up everything that has been stated so far, the female representation in The
Canterbury Tales contributes to restoring the balance between genders in society. Though quite
exaggerated at times, the emergence of the Wife of Bath in the Chaucer’s literary work puts
emphasis on what women were not in the Middle Ages and unveils the poet’s reaction to the
widely-thought perception of women at that time.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Moss, Joyce, and Lorraine Valestuk. World Literature and Its Times: British and Irish
Literature and Its Times: Celtic Migrations Tothe Reform Bill (Beginnings-1830s) , Part
1 (World Literature and Its Times, 3). Gale Research Inc, 2000.
2. Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. Peasants’ Revolt. Encyclopedia Britannica, 30
Dec. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/event/Peasants-Revolt. Accessed 22 January
2023.
3. Lumiansky, R.M.. Geoffrey Chaucer. Encyclopedia Britannica, 21 Oct. 2022,
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Geoffrey-Chaucer. Accessed 22 January 2023.
4. Chaucer, Geoffrey, et al. The Canterbury Tales. Oxford, United Kingdom, Oxford UP,
2011, p. 150.
5. Mead, William E. “The Prologue of the Wife of Bath’s Tale.” PMLA, vol. 16, no. 3,
1901, pp. 388–404. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/456482. Accessed 22 Jan. 2023.
6. Ferber, Michael. A Dictionary of Literary Symbols. Cambridge, United Kingdom,
Cambridge UP, 2017.