After reading The Wife of Baths tales, I concur with
critics who indicate Chaucer may have been a feminist. This tale is set in the
days of King Arthur when men were more dominate then women, where the women had
to obey the commands of the men. Equality between male and female was never an
option, let alone, a thought on ones mind. In this tale the King ordered for a
knight to be put to death, “this knight was condemned to be dead”, but the
Queen and ladies prayed for the kings Grace. Usually, once a King has made his
decision then it is final but the King granted the Queen and ladies their wish
and let the Queen handle the situation, “he gave him to the Queen, all at her
will”. I believe this moment reveals Chaucer is a feminist, by allowing the
Queen to take control and do a Kings job by punishing this knight. Chaucer has given
the Queen power – making her equal with the King. The Queen’s punishment made
the knight seem somewhat stressed by having to run around and seek for answers,
“he seeks every house and every place” we see here that Chaucer has reversed
the roles for male and female – the male is taking orders from the female this
time. These are the reasons why I believe Chaucer is a feminist.
Hi Grace,
ReplyDeleteInteresting discussion. I pretty much agree with everything you've said here, however I can't help but wonder if there's another angle to the whole thing. It's difficult (as Mike mentioned in class) to apply ideals from 19th or 20th century to a 14th century figure. However, I also think that a concept like feminism definately existed long before anyone had given it a name or a specific doctrine - so in that sense I think we're both correct.
Anyway, just a thought, the question calls for references to the text. You should definately include some of these in your future discussions because it gives them a little bit more weight (and obviously, will probably get you a better mark!)
Looking forward to next post,
James.