Chaucer's Feminism Fails, Falters, Falls Flat

As I initially read the Wife of Bath's Tale, I found myself pretty pleasantly surprised with its ideological content. The moral of the story seemed to have a little more depth of social analysis than just "respect women," as seems to be the case in a good many romances. Indeed, the protagonist ultimately learns to give women agency and authority over their own lives and decisions. Given the pervasive conceptualization of the medieval as being more intensely patriarchal than modern society, I was shocked, as Chaucer's ethics seemed in line with the Feminist movements of the 20th and 21st centuries. However, I ultimately found his feminism fell a little flat.

The language used at the story's conclusion is telling: the knight's bride asks "Thanne have I gete of yow maistrye...Sin I may chese and governe as me lest?" To which he replies "Ye, certes, wyf." (1236-1238) This attempts to serve as the "empowering" high point of the story; the woman establishes agency over herself and the knight learns to respect it. The contradiction lies in the action itself occurring in the lines - she's asking for permission. This act contradicts Chaucer's thesis: her asking permission shows an utter lack of power, as it implies the ability of the knight to say no - to deny her agency. Furthermore, it implies infantilization of the woman, as needing a guiding (masculine) authority over her life. Agency that requires permission is false agency, and Chaucer disguises this under the guise of granting her autonomy.

The knight thusly becomes the primary patriarch in the tale. The driving force of the narrative is his rape of a young maiden, an act which is presently and historically a very gendered crime, and an exertion and demonstration of power. The irony in this is that Chaucer, in his supposed feminism, never actually punishes the knight for his act. In fact, he ultimately ends up with a beautiful and loyal wife - he's ultimately better off than he began for having committed the act. The maiden is misogynistically thrust aside of the narrative. Ultimately, the only purpose of her being victim to such a horrible, traumatic experience is to help the knight learn to be a better person, which is unjustified - the good and bad are hardly equal here.

The primary woman of the story ends up serving a similar narrative purpose. She does it in such a severe way to foreshadow a modern literary trope - the Manic Pixie Dream Girl. This is a woman, often described as "quirky" or something similar, whose own motives end up being secondary to her helping a male protagonist become a better person - see: every John Green novel. Here, the "Pixie" aspect of the trope is taken literally: she is implied to be a fairy (Osborn, f.n. 18). This further reinforces her lack of agency by stripping her of humanity.

Ultimately, Chaucer serves an interesting role in that his proto-Feminist thought, while almost entirely upholding patriarchal structures, predicts several common tropes of modern liberal feminism - much of which didn't crop up until the revolutionary shift from feudalism to liberalism and capitalism was in full swing. I'll close with a quote, from someone I'm sure you're tired of hearing about:

Michel Fouc-oh, no, not again.

"Power is exercised rather than possessed; it is not the 'privilege', acquired or preserved, of the dominant class, but the overall effect of its strategic positions." (Discipline and Punish 26) Chaucer's downfall is the downfall of much of feminism - he fails to recognize that it's not enough for those in power to claim respect for the marginalized, because it does not change the effect of their position in structures of power or mystically grant 'agency' to the oppressed.

"She turned me into a newt... I got better"

Clearly, plain and simple, she is a witch!

First Reason:

                She appears in an isolated forest clearing that would seem quite out of the way.  Did she just magically teleport there or something?  He arrived there by horse, but it said nowhere in the text that she had any horse.  Second, what does she eat?  Nowhere in the text does it mention dead animal carcasses surrounding the forest clearing.

Second Reason:

                Her first appearance is in place of the disappearance of twenty-four dancing virgins.  So are twenty-four dancing virgins a metaphor for the youth that she, being the witch that she is, has left?

Third Reason:

                She turns from the world’s ugliest old hag into a beautiful fair maiden in one day’s time.  How is this even possible?  Clearly, because she is a witch it was possible!

Fourth Reason:

                But what is the nature of a witch but to be wise and full of trickery.  Seeing the knight on the way home to face his punishment, what better victim could one find.  Using his desperation to her advantage, she provides him with his answer but at an unset price (does that not sound like a witch, to have one owe her favors, but never owe others favors herself).  Later, when she comes to collect on the promise set, she asks that of him that would irk any young man in his place the most.  She, most likely, enjoyed watching him squirm and lament once her will was stated.

I think after these four reasons, my assessment that she is indeed a witch is backed.  Now, is she a wise witch?  I am going to say, “Yes!”  The fact that she is pressing the knight to marry someone as hideous as she is bad enough, but he has no proof to claim she is a witch.  By the time that he does have proof, in which to try her as a witch, he has fallen in love with her (especially with her body now being that of a young maiden).  She played her cards right and things went exactly as she probably intended.  She gained the very power over her husband that all woman wished for, but needed no magic to do so.  With that, I back my claim that she is indeed wise and with her reacquired youth, she is, indeed, a witch!

The Overall Concept of Women in the Middle Ages

After getting to read this piece, I came across some overall ideas. First of all, this can be classified as a feminist piece; and, as a overall concept, the story has different viewpoints from some of the other pieces we have read.

When it comes to being a feminist style of writing, readers observe the woman of the court taking a strong role of leadership. As we see the Knight in King Arthur's court, the wife of the King, along with some other ladies of the court, give him the second chance at life. The women inform him of going on this journey for a year, informing us readers that this is going to be another one of those epiphany moments. When I read this, I thought this was way ahead of its time. Chaucer definitely put himself way ahead of any other author of his time, by putting strong, independent female characters as leaders in his novels.

The one thing the really grabbed me in this was the idea that he had to answer the one question all men dread to be asked: What do women want most in this world? Guys, heart to heart moment, we don't even understand what is like to be a woman, let alone what they truly want. We can ask all of the women on this planet, and we still wouldn't know the answer to this Goddamn question. If I were in the Knight's shoes, I would beg for my head to be chopped off, because there is no way in hell I will ever know the answer to this question.

This was definitely a different style read than the other pieces we have read in this class for a lot of reasons, mainly the idea of reading in middle english, and it grabbed my attention right from the beginning. The concept of middle english is much different from today's english, For me, since I didn't obtain the book with middle english in it (amazon didn't have the book mentioned online... my life lol), I had to read this off of the Harvard website. In a couple of words I can describe to you that this was interesting and difficult to read. That's what grabbed me; the idea that I can have so much fun reading a book makes me want to read more and more.

Overall, I thought this was a great read. I read this story before my junior year of high school, and after reading this for a third time, I understand what the story is truly trying to tell me.

"The Wife of Bath's Tale"

I thought this story was a little different than others we have read.  The text was obviously different, it was extremely difficult to read but it wasn’t impossible.  The idea of The wife of bath’s tale was based on power and women.  I thought although, disgusting and awful, the rape part of the story was different and a little twists.  The whole concept of the story was interesting and I really enjoyed reading it minus the Middle English text. 

Not killing the knight and giving him a chance to hear what women have to say was awesome.  Don’t get me wrong, rape is awful and disgusting but in terms of the story, I thought having him go out and find an answer for the Queen was amusing.  I thought her challenge was great too, being a woman, I kind of read that and thought to myself…what do I want most in the world?

It was cool that the queen and the women in the court all had a say in this knight’s life or death.   And then before he even gives his answer to the queen, he puts his life in the hands of a strange old woman.  Like first you are powerful and raping a woman, and then you have this power taken away and it changes you.  This story taught me that power can be a harmful thing to have.  And in this case, the women have the power.

I really liked the end, it was kind of cute, the Knight is given a choice and because his choice he got the best of both worlds! 

I really wish I could be like this old woman and have all the right answers and change whatever I want about myself.  Not only did she tell this knight the right answer, she got him to promise himself to her, and she got to turn herself into a young pretty woman with good qualities.  She seems like the kinda old woman I want to be when I grow up!

         Overall,  I thought this was one of the more interesting stories we have read, probably because it was a little different plot wise.  Rape is bad, and knights shouldn’t do it, and women deserve all the power J  So this story has all the right ideas.  If I were a woman in that court however, I probably would have had the knight killed, but no big deal, the queen clearly taught the knight better values.