2. The Wife of Bath's Tale is considered by some critics to indicate that Chaucer may have been a feminist. Why might they believe this? Do you agree? Remember to cite evidence from the text or some other source.
3.Hahn's essay (see critical reader)onThe Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle identifies the motif of the loathly lady, but arguesit has a different purpose than asserting the feminine. What does he think the function of the story is?
4. In the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean sonnets, how can we define "conceits"?
5. Discuss what you think is the most striking or outrageous example.
6. What does Revard (1997) suggest about the relationship between language, sex, power and transgression in the English Renaissance?
1. Cite some variations in the Loathly Lady fabula across the three tales in your Reader. Focus on the conditions by which the lady is either beautiful or ugly, and the actions of the knight/king/"hero"...
ReplyDelete4. In the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean sonnets, how can we define "conceits"?
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ReplyDelete2) The Wife of Bath's Tale is considered by some critics to indicate that Chaucer may have been a feminist. Why might they believe this? Do you agree? Remember to cite evidence from the text or some other source.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I do not believe Chaucer was a feminist, though I can definitely see why some critics may believe this. In The Wife of Bath, there is a recurring theme of female dominance over their male counterparts. This is a probable reason for why critics think this is a feminist text.
The theme of female dominance is evident even from the beginning of the text when the knight is put before King Arthur for his wrongdoing, “that dampned was this knight for to be deed”, and yet, by the end of the verse the decision of what was to be done with him was left up to the Queen as King Arthur gave her “al at hir wille” the power to choose wether the knight should live or die! It is then that the queen presents the knight with a whole years quest of finding “what thing is it that women moost desiren” and to surrender his body in order to spare his life for that day.
After searching for the answer, talking to many women who each have different answers, he comes across a forest “of ladyes foure and twenty, and yet mo” whose dancing entices him in – yet another example of power over men, through sexual desire. However the women disappear and an ugly old woman appears before the knight, exclaiming that by pledge of his word on anything that she wants of him, she would tell him the answer to his question before night. Again, another example of having just that little bit more authority over men, she having his word over his life, to give her anything in return for her wisdom.
After the knight gives his answer to the open court, the ugly widow appears requesting the knight take her as his wife. Later when they go to bed the knight tells her of his sorrows, having a wife who is ugly and old and of poor lineage. She then gives him a choice:
“To han me foul and till that I deye, And be to yow a trewe, humble wyf, And nevere yow displease in al my lyf, Or elles ye wol han me yong and fair, And take youre aventure of the repair, That shal be to youre hous by cause of me, Or in som oother place, may wel be.”
To have a wife ugly, old but humble and true or a wife young and fair, and unfaithful – thus she was allowing her husband to choose for himself as he pleased (giving him ‘some’ of the power). However, to the widow’s delight, the knight lets his wife decide, and she then becomes “bothe fair and good”.
I also found the ending verse humorous where it ends in the narration of a woman, obvious by the context praying that they have “…Husbands meek, young and vigorous in bed, And grace to outlive them who we wed…”
From these examples of female dominance in the text, I truly believe that this is not a feminist text. For starters, the wife could not have known the modern feminist movement’s political beliefs, about the equality of rights and rather, I think the text is better related to a central theme of “liberation from gender role restriction”. This is brought out by Susan Carter who brings out the ideas of gender destabilization in The Chaucer Review and of which, I completely agree on.
The text shows how the women give these men choices, but not as a feminist way of wanting or gaining equality, but rather to test them. Chaucer is dictating the idea of gender roles and who really has the power. The man is actually given the power in the beginning and the end to make his own decisions, so really it proves that men do still have authority over women and Chaucer is simply trying to dictate that although women may have some authority or power over men, they will never fully have it.
I don't think he was a feminist either, however, I believe his literature empowered women readership who would've been viewed as second to men during that era.
DeleteLife was probably droll; what with knights busy jousting and duties, leaving the women to entertain themselves by pick flowers (maybe not), dollop in embroidery and reading.
I think the knight saved her from a possible beheading by preferring to have her ugly and old rather than young, beautiful and promiscuous.
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ReplyDelete1. Cite some variations in the Loathly Lady fabula across the three tales in your Reader. Focus on the conditions by which the lady is either beautiful or ugly, and the actions of the knight/king/"hero"...
ReplyDeleteA loathly lady in a fabula was often shown as a witch, an ugly woman with forces of nature at her disposal. There are 3 variations; Chaucers’ The Wife of Bath’s Tale, Hahns The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle and finally, In Steeleye Spans song that dictates the action of man towards the appearance of an ugly woman. All three variations had the motif of the hag trying to tempt man to fulfil her desires.
In Chaucer’s version after Gawain was punished for violating a lady’s maidenhead and had helped from the hag, she requested his hand in marriage. He could not accept the hag since he beseeched her “For God’s love, choose a new request! Take all my goods and let my body go” cementing his denial of an ugly lady as his wife. When his wife questioned why he was sad, he declare how she trouble him so by her ugliness for the rest of his life in which she return that statement by transforming to a beautiful maiden, warning him of the dangers of insanity that might corrupt him.
In Hahn’s version, it is only when King Arthur’s safety was threatened by Dame Ragnell that Gawain wed her. He consulted with Gawain on this ultimatum. Here, Gawain was more accepting. He was very loyal to his King and will lay his life for the king even his fate was to wed the dame “I will wed her at the time you set. I pray you worry no more. Though she be the foulest person, that ever has seen on the earth, for you I will not hesitate.” The proclamation portrayed him much more in a positive tone; he is a hero compared to his dastardly self in the first text. What came after was not mentioned.
The last text illustrated King Henry who had a heart of gold, diligently did everything in his power to provide the ugly woman what she needs even though the hag scared away his henchmen and hurt his heart as emphasized by the hag “I’ve met with many a gentle knight that gave me such a fill, but never before a courteous knight that gave me all my will.” His greatest reward comes in the form of a fair lady transformed from the hag.
The three variations justified the stereotype towards female and attempted to demolish the differences in social standings of gender in Arthurian times.
4. In the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean sonnets, how can we define "conceits"?
ReplyDeleteIn the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean sonnet, "conceits" defined as metaphors. According to Abrams(1993), ‘conceits’ used as metaphors to express satire, puns or deeper meanings within the poem and to display descriptive words. "Conceits" means the way of harmony by connecting contradictory elements. "Conceits" is expression method of poem which tries to find similarity rather than compare the two things by connecting two kinds of objects or concepts.
For example, Shakespeare’s Sonnet XVIII
-Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines
-sometime= on occasion, sometimes; the eye of heaven= the sun
References
Sonnet XVIII (n.d.). In Shakespeare;s Sonnet. Retrieved June 15, 2012, from http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/sonnet/18
Metaphysical conceit (2006, May 24). In The Decline of the Renaissance. Retrieved June 15, 2012, from http://blog.naver.com/orange_n?Redirect=Log&logNo=60024636967
2. The Wife of Bath's Tale is considered by some critics to indicate that Chaucer may have been a feminist. Why might they believe this? Do you agree? Remember to cite evidence from the text or some other source.
ReplyDeleteThe Middle Ages society has a characteristic of patriarchal community that women hold a very low rank compared with men. We can see that Chaucer realizes that a patriarchal community forces women to suppress because he presents women an opportunity for saying by using a heroine main character. But I do not believe Chaucer was a feminist.
A story from the heroine starts with grief on a marriage life and ends with complete pleasure by a women's submissive behavior in a prologue of The Wife of Bath's Tale. The Wife of Bath’s Tale ends with the solution of the conflict from obedience of women in spite of a women’s universal desire. As a prologue, the last part of the story says that the heroine obeys everything to bring a lot of joy him and they live out their days with happiness.
Patterson(1983) insists that the desire of the heroine filled with a gallant spirit is masculine wish-fulfillment and she as well accords with him unlike an original intention. In other words, she encloses by a fence of a masculine language though the heroin tries to live freely in patriarch cultures.
“....................and Jhesu Crist us sende
Housbondes meeke, yonge, and fresh abedde,
And grace t'overbyde hem that we wedde;
And eek I parye Jhese shorte hir lyves
That noght wol be governed by hir wyves;
And olde and angry nygardes of dispence,
God sende hem soone verray perstilence!” (1258-1264)
Quinn(1984) says that The Wife of Bath's Tale shows a sense of distance with the struggle world and the relationship in truth reality between the men and women from fiction during an Arthurian period and a situation in 14century in England. The male-dominated society and limits of the heroine who cannot transcend the limits of the male-dominated society come into view connotatively in the word of farewell by a formality of player. The heroin who realized that she ends in failure a fulfillment of a wish through romance related to King Arthur of a male-centered representative discourse comes back to earth. From last words, the heroin throws off fantastic mask and wards off the spell which tempts her. Even if she challenges the patriarchal authority, she is still an originally starting point as it is in the end. This comes from Chaucer who intends to make a restriction on the voice of women in the andocentric official culture. From this point of view, as a confession in prologue, the writer just tries to tell the readers simply her fantasies rather than the authority of women and the importance of the domination. The heroin wants to give the pilgrim of her colleagues the joy through this fantastic story
“But yet I praye to al this compaignye,
If that I speke after my fantasye,
As taken not agrief of that I seye,
For myn entente nys but for to pleye” (189-192)
In this sense, as Crane(1987) point out, The Wife of Bath's Tale is a pure fiction which says totally fictions. The Heroin is just a being which is a fiction by a masculine poet who has the authority and vested rights.
References
Quinn, E. (1984) Chaucer's Arthurian Romance, Chaucer Review 18. Aaron Steinberg,
Patterson, L. (1983). For the Wyves love of Bathe's : Feminine Rhetoric and poetic Resolution in the Roman de la Rose and The Canterbury Tales. N.p.: Speculum 58.
Crane, S. (1987). Alison's Incapacity and Poetic Instability in the Wife of Bath's Tale. N.p.: PMLA 102.
Chaucer, G. (1987). The Canterbury Tales. In D. Larry (Ed.), The Riverside Chaucer (3rd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.