Gender In Canterbury Tales

Instituto Superior del Profesorado ”Dr. Joaquín V. González”

Literatura Inglesa I

On Chaucerian Literature and the Marriage Debate:
Gender as explored in The Canterbury Tales

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De Anseris, Florencia
Ranuncolo, Cecilia
Sosti, Fabiana
Wesser, Clarissa 2 E 2010
The Canterbury Tales is the most popular work written by Geoffrey Chaucer some time in the earlyfourteenth century. The aim of this paper is to trace, identify and describe the themes that portray the relationship between women and men in those days and age. There will be an attempt to explore the role of gender and medieval marriage in direct reference to the characters involved in the present discussion.
The paper is divided as follows: first, it will attempt to make reference to thehistorical background through the discussion of the setting in time and place and to the meaning of pilgrimages in the late Middle Ages. Second, the paper will make reference to some traits of the characters, which appear to stand as a faithful example of the social order to which they belong. Third, it will focus on the themes of gender roles and the marriage debate, which seem to be clearlyexplored in the Wife of Bath’s Tale, the Clerk’s Tale and the Franklin’s Tale. Finally, it will attempt to conclude that the role of women in the later Middle Ages showed an apparent glimmer of less submissive behaviour as far as marriage was concerned. The discussion of these contents will be supported by direct quotations from critical essays and from the selected Canterbury Tales to contributetowards a clear understanding of the ideas presented.


The Canterbury Tales is a masterpiece written by Geoffrey Chaucer some time in the early 14th century. The tales present a cross-section of society, or rather the middle- class given that these are not told by the nobles or royals but by the people of the new emerging middle- class.
The miscellany of tales is told by a group ofpilgrims on the road to Canterbury to the shrine of St Thomas à Becket. It might be worth noticing that in medieval society the king’s subjects were divided into three categories or orders: the military, the clergy and the laity, taking into account birth, profession and marital status. Chaucer observes this division and defines the characters in realistic terms depending on their social, economic,moral status and religious conception and behaviour.
Chaucer skilfully chooses the Franklin to play the role of the landowning class. He is a man who thinks that his aim in life is to pursue pleasure and happiness[1]. Then, Chaucer selects the Clerk to represent the clergy at a time when the Church was highly questioned and orthodox and unorthodox groups (considered heretics by the spiritualauthorities) started to voice their conception against the behaviour of the ecclesiastical members who appeared to have departed from its original end, that of helping the ones in need. Lastly, he selects the Wife of Bath to play the role of the middle- class woman seemingly independent and less submissive to men who claims to be more skilful at weaving than any Flemish weaver. Through this, ‘thewife’ makes reference to the question of trade in England and the rise of the guilds: the weaver and the haberdasher, among others.
It might be worth noticing that middle-class wives were eager to come up in the world and were socially ambitious. This is clearly portrayed in the Wife of Bath given that she wants every pilgrim of the congregation to praise the beauty and high quality of herexquisite apparel.

Zooming into the mid-fourteenth century, England was no longer enjoying a prosperous period of high farming. There was not enough cultivable land to ensure that the peasantry would have an appropriate livelihood. A high population along with low living standards inevitably brought about poverty, famine and disease, and a mortality rate that crept upwards and reached its...