Portrayal of Women and Marriage in The Canterbury Tales

In the fourteenth century England women did not enjoy the social status with their counterparts. They were regarded as inferior to men since it was believed that God created her from Adam's ribs. If He had meant her to be superior to man, He would have obviously created her from Adam's head. This kept women firmly in a position of inferiority and dependence upon man. In the middle ages the society was under the dominance of the Church.

The Churchmen looked down upon women as a source of evil in the world. It was she who brought the fall of Adam from heaven. The woman was regarded as a temptation and a snare to be avoided by sane and virtuous persons. In this way women were reduced to the status of chattel and playthings for men. Their life was quite miserable.

Women of the lower strata of society were subjected to a harsh life of unrelieved drudgery. They were treated no better than slaves. They were supposed to be the property of men who could sell and purchase them. They were considered marketable commodity. They worked both in the hearth and the field. Education was not given to them. Child marriage and dowry-system were the order of the day. Richard II's second wife was the seven year old daughter of the king of France. Such marriages were of course based on political considerations. But financial considerations, also played a conspicuous part in the matrimonial arrangements of the time, and several instances are recorded of girls being sold in childhood for large sums by parents and guardians.

Women of noble and aristocratic families, however, led a comparatively better social life. Though they did not have any political rights, they received education and dressed nicely. They were taught in nunneries or by governesses at home. In the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales we have a reference to Stratford-at-Bow. This was a nunnery, which apart from its usual religious duties, also educated daughters of the rich. Woman of the higher classes enjoyed the social status only by marriage, but their marriage was, however, a great problem. If their parents could not arrange for a rich dowry, the only respectable way open to women was to join the convent and lead a cloistered life. Those women, who not get suitable matches, tried to gain respect in society by joining the nunnery. Chaucer's Prioress is a perfect representative of such women.

In the Prologue we find two women characters; The Prioress and the Wife of Bath. The Prioress represents a woman of the upper strata of society, with all those vanities dear to a feminine heart. We come to know about her fashion her liking for colored clothes and ornaments, her table manners, her affected speech, her tender sentimentality, her rosary of small, bright red coral, and her shining golden brooch with a motto Amor vincit Omnia (Love conquered all things). Though she was a nun, she had all the weaknesses of a female heart. She did not care for the strict rules of the Church. She was a woman first and foremost, conscious of her beauty and grace.

In contrast to the soft spoken aristocratic Prioress is the coarse, boisterous, masculine Wife of Bath who represents the natural woman as opposed to the conventional. She stands for woman's sovereignty in marriage. She has recounted the history of her five marriages. In each case she entirely subjugated her husband. Women like the Wife of Bath always managed to escape from the life of humdrum domesticity. They loved gossip, finery and the company of men and never liked to stay at home with their husbands.

In The Canterbury Tales, there is a group of tales which directly deal with the marriage question, the relation between man and woman, and especially man's attitude to woman. It begins with the Wife of Bath's Tale, and ends with the Franklin's Tale: the order is Wife, Friar, Summoner, Clerk, Merchant, Squire and Franklin, Except for one or two tiles, which express a kindly attitude to women, the rest of them contain bitter attacks on their sex. In the satire against women contained in these tales, Chaucer was simply expressing the conventional attitude to women. Some critics are of the opinion that this satire is not so innocent as it seems, and that it is tinged with Chaucer's own bitter experiences of an unhappy marriage. They take the misogynistic passages in these tales as reflections of his own personal experience. But if we read the tales carefully, we find that Chaucer, like a true dramatist, is making his characters express their own views, while he stands aloof. It is a mistake to identify him with any of his characters. Moreover, when both sides are heard, the last of the Franklin gives a balanced view about this problem making a strong plea for mutual patience and perfect, gentle love between husband and wife. It can be reasonably believed that this was also Chaucer's own considered opinion about this most puzzling question. And, above all, though we know that Chaucer was a married person, there is no valid evidence that his marriage was unhappy.

The discussion of the question of the relation between man and woman starts from Chaucer's own story of Melibeus followed by the Nun's Priest's Tale until the Wife of Bath takes up this question more seriously. In Melibeus, Chaucer points out the moral: give your wife the "maistrye" and all will be well. The graceful and amusing tale of the Nun's Priest about Chanticleer and Pertelote, brings forth some of the most acid of all the comments on the woman question. It looks as if Chaucer had brought him forward at this point in order to provide a counterblast to the exaltation of woman in Melibeus. The whole point of his story is that a husband who follows the advice of his wife will come to grief.

When the Wife of Bath begins her story, this question comes to the forefront. She states that she can speak with the authority of an expert, for she has outlived five husbands, and she is ready to welcome a sixth when God shall send him. She believes that men are no match for women. Let them sink back to their proper level, and cease their ridiculous efforts to maintain a position for which they are not fit. Then marriages will all be happy. She supports her contention from curious experiences of fifth and latest husband, by profession a scholar, who, after futile resistance and ultimately to yield to her dominance.

The Clerk then tells the story of Griselda who was submissive to her husband in all things despite her sufferings. He is of the opinion that women should have mastery over the husband, but it should be of gentle and not of aggressive kind. He is followed by the Merchant whose experience has been so bitter that he breaks out into a savage attack on wedlock, reinforced by an equally savage tale of a silly old husband deceived by his young wife. The Squire's Tale which follows, deals with the code courtly love, as is proper for an elegant youth.

The question of man's relation to a woman is finally disposed of in the Franklin's Tale. The Franklin's discussion of the subject is both definite and compendious. Chaucer does not allow him to tell a tale without a moral expressed. His solution of the problem is that mutual forbearance and not "maistry" is the key to marital happiness. He expresses a balanced and reasonable view which seems to be Chaucer's own. We feel convinced that happiness in married life is possible.

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Shrestha, Roma. "Portrayal of Women and Marriage in The Canterbury Tales." BachelorandMaster, 16 Mar. 2018, bachelorandmaster.com/britishandamericanpoetry/portrayal-of-women-and-marriage-in-canterbury-tales.html.