Sundas kamal The Relationship between language and gender issues in Geoffrey Chaucer’s poetry. 14 October,2014 Geoffrey Chaucer was born in 1343, and was known as “The Father of Literature”. He was a poet, philosopher, Bureaucrat and diplomat. Chaucer’s English was merely different from the normal one. There may be similarity in the meanings but spellings are different. Sounds of the consonants may differ as well. The Canterbury Tales, significantly contributed to the development of English as a literary language. The originality of his language and style, the vivacity of his humor, and the depth of his understanding are continually cited as reasons for the permanence of his work. Aldous Huxley says that “where …show more content…
Chaucer’s satire is mainly directed against religious corruption. Carolyn Dinshaw wrote in her book “Sexual Poetics” that “If feminism has a contribution to make to Chaucer studies…it is…that it enables us to see the full significance of what is already there in his text…so simple a fact as that the Canterbury Tales…contains not a single example of the story-type that embodies its deals in the central figure of a male character or male hero.” Chaucer explored the relationship between the control of language and masculine power in the patriarchal society. He has a strong control on his vocabulary. He use humor and satire for men and discussed the women of that time in ironical way and used humorous exaggeration as well. Religion had a strong control over minds and souls of the people in Chaucer’s age. Ecclesiastical characters in “The prologue” had become notorious for their avarice, corruption and dishonesty. They had forgotten their religious and sacred duties and had become degenerated. The ecclesiastical characters of the Prologue throws much more light on Chaucer’s attitude and attention towards religion. The wife of Bath, the Prioress and the second Nun represent a distinct group of women with different roles and desires. They were totally opposite of what actually happened in the 14th
Satire In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer used satire in many of his writings including the monk the general prologue and the friar. There are many satirical targets including the church. Out of everyone in his writings, he uses the friar, the pardoner, and the prioress to show his satirical views of the church. He isn't targeting the church but he is targeting church hypocrisy.
In the three readings, Pardoner’s Prologue, Pardoner’s Tale and Wife of Bath's Tale Chaucer uses satire. Satire is another word for sarcasm. He displays several accounts of sarcasm throughout all three of them. In the Pardoner’s Tale, that is where he displays his satire of the church. In Pardoner’s Prologue he critiques the patriarchy.
There were two main stories that we read, “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of bath’s Tale”. These are two of the multiple stories in The Canterbury Tales. These stories tell stories that make fun of the church. The two stories also have a main focus of explaining morals in a hidden way. Both stories express more than one moral and it gives the reader a sense of what Chaucer is trying to express.
In his work, The General Prologue and The Wife of Bath’s Tale, The Wife of Bath is utilized to defy a patriarchal society and ownership, but still reinforces the idea of the male’s reduction to body/appearance in women. When looking at these attributes through a Feminist Theory Lens, there is a lot of material to be interpreted and distinguished. Chaucer’s work was believed to be written in 1386, a time where the world fell into a large patriarchal society. Men were believed to be in control and women were simply seen as subordinates.
Geoffrey Chaucer used the Canterbury Tales to highlight some of the problems in his culture. Chaucer points out specifically the corrupt religious leaders and the role and view of women.
She tells tales of how she controls her husbands, defying misogynist views in the tale but her boisterous presentation of her ideas showcases Chaucer’s true opinion of women. Though the Wife of Bath is dead set to disprove every misogynist idea of the time, she exemplifies others, all as part of Chaucer’s underlying point to prove women the lesser sex.
Gender Roles: Interpreting The Opposite Sex In today’s society men and women are often expected to perform different tasks, and occupy different roles based on their sex. Within different cultures, the view of how women and men should act and interact varies with political and religious influences, as well as personal influences. Geoffrey Chaucer suggests that people’s ability to understand the opposite sex is divided because of the stereotypes set in society for the opposite genders. Women are more likely to work as secretaries, and men are likely expected to work as managers and executives in the working field.
Geoffrey Chaucer, an English poet during the middle ages, wrote The Canterbury Tale’s Wife of Bath; he was born from a humble middle-class family and climbed his way up through the aristocracy. The Wife of Bath main protagonist is molded by a sexist culture of her times. My goal with this paper is to shed light on The Wife of Bath’s main character. A story of a smart, strong-willed woman who manipulates her way to financial and personal independence, is she a feminist or a smart and scheming woman?
In The Wife of Bath’s Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer uses the tale as a fable to reveal the human nature of shallowness by its plot and characters. The story begins from the ancient days of King Arthur, when the “hero” of the story condemned sexual assault, but then was saved by an ugly woman. Chaucer created characters that are lusty, greedy, materially desires, and amazingly shallow in order to compare and comment on the lifestyle of the higher classes at the time. From the start of the story, Geoffrey Chaucer illustrated how foolishly shallows the young Knight is in comparison to the upper classman.
Calling the Church body “his apes” exemplifies the opinion Chaucer holds about the Church, as he believes they are like monkeys, blindly following others, unaware of their own stupidity. In terms of blindly following, the double entendre of the word “apes” comes into play, as it is defined as “imitating another person”. The members of the Church blindly imitate what they see in the Church, leading to a society of corrupted followers. Chaucer continues to present the hypocrisy prevalent in the Church through the character of the Pardoner, as he preaches, “For my intent is only pence to win,” (“Pardoner’s Prologue” 117). Through these lines, the audience receives their first image of the Pardoner’s satirical hypocrisy as, in his sermons, he preaches against greed while, at the same time, uses the guilt of his audience to feed his own.
Geoffrey Chaucer pushed boundaries and told stories he knew his audience would want to hear. “The Miller’s Tale” as well as “The Reeve’s Tale” has crocodilian humor. Chaucer used bawdy and vulgar scenarios to generate laughter for the audience. His sardonic sense of humor made stories seem larger than life (Brewer, Derek). Both tales feature an elaborate plan for sexual gratification and have components of irony.
In the book of Wife of Bath’s Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer shows the role of a woman being weak creatures while men are economically powerful and educated. Women are seen as inheritor of eve and thus causes
In The Canterbury Tales, readers met so many religious figures who amount to a pure source of hypocrisy and contradiction such as the Friar, the Pardoner, the Nun, and more. Geoffrey Chaucer, the author, brought a delightful dose of sarcasm in various descriptions of the religious characters
Perks of Sarcasm (Chaucer 's Use of Satire to Reach Intended Audience) Geoffrey Chaucer, also known as, “The Father of English Literature,” uses satire in his stories to influence his intended audience. Satire is the use of humor or irony to reveal a person 's stupidity. Considering Chaucer 's stories are legendary, he never fails to through some satire into his writing. With that being said, using it while writing a story is one of the most effective ways of writing.
Reality in the Sarcasm (A Discussion on Chaucer 's usage of Satire to Meet His Agenda.) Geoffrey Chaucer was known as the father of the English Language. During Chaucer 's time in the late 1300’s, he had many issues with the state of how people lived. He used his writing to criticize the societal issues he noticed during his time.