Medieval Women And Their Resources

Medieval Women and their resources - An analysis of The Canterbury Tales

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a collection of stories that are recited by different pilgrims who are on their way to St. Thomas's tomb in Canterbury. On their way they decide to hold a contest that would judge the best tale out of the ones recited by the different characters. The tales help the characters pass the time and entertain themselves. The different characters are from different walks of life and have very different personalities. Set in the middle ages, this novel gives us an insight into the beliefs and customs of the time including disrespect towards the women. The women have lower status than the men in all regards. They are taught to be obedient to their husbands and fathers. To keep men happy is their main aim. (Castle Learning). Women have little power to exercise their free will; hence, they are forced to use their sexuality to fulfill their desires.

One of the stories in The Canterbury Tales demonstrates the suspicion of a husband toward his wife.

"The carpenter had married a new wife,

Not long before, and loved her more than life,

She is a girl eighteen years of age,

Jealous he is and kept her in the cage". (89)

The husband, a carpenter is always afraid that his beautiful and young wife would cheat on him and he will be cuckolded, so he domineers over her. There is also a huge age difference between them which requires him to be more cautious about his wife's activities. Thus his young wife has no freedom. It is accepted that women have to be controlled if the honor of the family wanted is precious and needs to be preserved. Women are considered naturally promiscuous; they are almost always viewed with suspicion.

"There's many a virtuous wife, all said and done,

Ever a thousand good for one that's bad." (87)

This means that the Miller, the narrator of the tale, believes that there are many virtuous and pure women who are loyal to their husband in comparison to the few wives who are impure and unfaithful. If a woman was disobedient to her husband by exercising her own free-will, she was considered impure as a woman's worth was judged by the men with power in society. If a woman cheats on her husband she is sinful and is the one who has "a lecherous eye" (90). The woman is expected to be pure and virtuous. In contrast, if the man cheats on his wife, he is not questioned and it is still considered the wife's fault and assumed that it is her who cannot keep him happy that he man has to resort to an affair (scriptorium). She is nothing but a precious object to him. He thinks of her as "[his] honey-pet". (100) It is possible that he loves his dog just as much as he loves his wife, Alison.

To escape the control of the carpenter Alison gets involved with a young student lodger, Nicholas. When Nicholas "[makes] a pass At [Alison], in a mood of play" (91) she asks him to "take [his] paws [away]" (91). When Nicholas too is objectifying her and considering her a sex object, she asks him to stay away from her. But when "[he] pleads his cause And [speaks] so fair in proffering what he could" (100), in return "[she] promises him she would" (100) get involved with him. Though Alison knows that he is not very sincere in all he is saying, she vows to love him. She wants a man who is scholarly and someone who can understand her emotionally. That is why Alison does not get involved with a parish clerk called Absalon who also objectifies her. Absalon "offers her money" (93) to impress Alison. And because Absalon does not understand her feelings and tries to buy her off she does not think very kindly of him and instead gets involved with Nicholas. And thus, she has to use her sexuality to get what she wants.

"The Physician's Tale" also shows how utilization of sexuality is inevitable to survive in a male dominated society. His tale is about a beautiful virtuous maiden who has to be killed by her father to save her from the clutches of a lust-driven judge. She has "modesty of bearing and of dress and showed in speech a modesty no less." (233). Her obedience and modesty made her an ideal medieval woman. She is killed by her father to save her honor from the lust driven judge. When the knight, her father, heard that he would have to give up his daughter to the judge because of the conspiracy that he has hatched, he gives his daughter "the ways that [existed] before [her], death or shame". (237). The maiden, Virginia, did not have the free will decide her fate other than the options of death or shame. She chose to die rather than face disgrace to her character by the lecherous judge. Her beauty was blamed for her death.

"Alas her beauty cost her all too dear!

Just as I always say, it's pretty clear

The handsome gifts that fate and nature lend us

Are very often those that least befriends us...

Those gifts that I is mentioning just now

Do us more harm than good." (240)

Though the poor girl is killed due to the treachery of the judge it was still considered the fault

of her own gifts that she has to be killed. The people pitied the girl but did not blame the judge in any way. This displayed the mindset of the people during the medieval period. She has to die because she didn't to use her sexuality in a society ruled solely by men. This exhibits that women could not survive without using their sexuality.

The Wife of Bath is the only female pilgrim whose tale we read. She is a character with a strong feminist perspective. She has been married five times already, growing richer every time. Unlike Virginia, the maiden in The Physicians Tale, she is a woman who strongly