Weeks 4 - 6
Please use the comments section below for your answers.
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"...
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)on The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelleidentifies 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?
I have chosen to answer question two for my blog post:
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.
Carter (2003) explores the idea that Chaucer had decided to use The Wife of Bath’s Tale as a vehicle for gender role destabilisation. Most of this is done through the power imbalance between the Hag and the knight, and how she oppresses the him throughout their relationship – from attracting him close by, to forcing him to marry her. This destabilisation of typical gender roles for the period give Carter an indication that Chaucer was a feminist, and that these unusual gender relationships and non-traditional power structures demonstrate that reconstruction of standard relationships and power structures was plausible at that time.
An example of the reversal of power demonstrated in this text occurs in lines 991 – 1004. The nameless knight is lured by a sort of apparition created by the hag - a group of dancing ladies who disappear on the Hag’s appearance. The act of luring the knight into her vicinity to give him the answer, re-educate him, and therefore trick him into marrying her clearly portrays the Hag as the ‘hunter’ in this scenario, and the knight as her dunce prey.
Another example of this non-traditional power structure is the fate of the Knight being placed in the Queen’s hands by King Arthur, as well as wives, widows and maids being present in court, as referenced in lines 1043 – 1044. Again, the power balance traditional for the 1300’s has been flipped – generally, it is males who are dealers of law and order.
However, in lines 929 – 941, we are shown clearly that Chaucer has embodied a female narrator, ie the Wife of Bath. After the knight is given the task of answering the question of “what women want” the narrator refers to women as ‘we’ and ‘us’.
The piece also ends in lines 1257 – 1264 describing a women’s desirable society - with meek husbands that are sexually appealing and that die before their wives.
I acknowledge that the power reversal of the court and the Hag demonstrate that feminist ideas were plausible in the 1300’s, but I am unsure what I think of Chaucer using a female voice for this story. While the ending of the story draws parallel to some radical feminist ideals, I personally am unsure if this provides evidence that Chaucer was a feminist. Much of the tale is told in a comical fashion, so generally, would not be taken seriously by his audience. It also makes me wonder if as a comedy, it was making more fun of feminist ideas than it is encouraging the diversity of thought…
References:
Carter, S. (2003). Coupling The Beastly Bride And The Hunter Hunted: What Lies Behind in Chaucer’s Wife Of Bath’s Tale. In The Chaucer Review, Vol. 37, No. 4, 2003.
Chaucer, Geoffrey (c.1390). The Wife of Bath.
testing 123
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