Language And Gender Issues In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

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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

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