| |
Social
Background
Chaucer's age was
a period of continuous economic upheaval. The Black Plague caused
the reduction of population and the economy also had a great decline.
The unstable and disordered economy made common people at that time wanted
to have economic security, which Chaucer reflected this situation in the
Wife's marriage: she married her first three husbands in exchange for the
sexual purpose of her body, they could give her this economic security.
In the Wife's Prologue, the sentence 'al is for to selle" exhibits the
fate of women as a commodity to be bought and used in marriage.
The chief purpose of Christian
is the procreation of children. At that time, virginity is praised
by the society and generally, people are allowed to get married only once
in a life time. They think that if a person gets married for many
times, the person is thought to indulge in sensual pleasure, which is very
sinful. However, in the Tale, the Wife of Bath questions the times
of marriage by pointing out the examples of King Solomon and some other
saints and how can virgins to be recreated if everyone maintains to be
a virgin. he Wife's words and action show that her attitude is against
the authorities of the church.
In the Wife of Bath's tale,
when the Knight travels around to find the correct answer of "what is women's
biggest desire?" The common answers he gets from women are such sin-deep
ones like honor, joy, richness, lust and so on. This represents that
Medieval people think women love vanity and then don't respect them.
But in the tale, the result of the story not only show that woman are actually
smarter than men because the Knight can't figure out the answer, but also
gives an example that one who cares about appearances more than the inner
beauty is actually the males.
1. Medieval
Source Book: information on gender roles, sexuality and more
2 Medieval Culture:
society, entertainment
E-Mail
|
|
