Wife Of Bath's Prologue

In The Wife of Bath's Prologue, there are many passages in which emphasize the need for feminism. One that really stood out though, is on page 235. The entire page is speaking of the hypocrisy of society and men, when speaking of women and their marriages. The Wife of Bath uses examples such as Abraham and Jacob, to show example of how it is okay when men marry and then re-marry and then re-marry and so on, yet when women do this it is no longer acceptable. In the exact part where it starts "I know well that Abraham was a holy man-Or where commanded he virginity?", this is the Wife of Bath/Chaucer expressing the question of why are women condemned for such an act, when men do this all of the time? I believe Chaucer is expressing the hypocrisy of society and men about women's rights and their place and role in society, through Wife of Bath thus-far. This is perfectly executed in the line, "For had God commanded maidenhood, Then he would have damned wedding in that deed.".

The Knights Tale Part IIII

Concluding with The Knights Tale, I believe that it has been obvious that Chaucer is mocking chivalry and love of that day. Throughout this tale, he plays with these men who are obsessed with themselves in different ways. Palamon with his obsession of love, even though he is still treating Emily like an object, she is just the OBJECT of his "affection". Arcite is obsessed with his love of victory. He does not actually want Emily, he just wants to win. In this society, men "won" women, they were prizes. This makes sense as to why Chaucer would mock this idea. In the end, both men got what they wanted and "won". This is Chaucer poking fun at both men in winning what they believed to be the end all be all.

The Knights Tale Part III

In Part III, the thought of love and war are extremely prevalent. One could see the differences between Palamon and his opposer in which temple they went to the night before the fight. Palamon seems to be Chaucer's example of extreme love, since he prays to Venus for love. He wants to win this fight for love. Whereas Arcite visits the temple of Mars, he prays to win this fight just for victory. This could be Chaucer's way of mocking two types of men in his day? The two extremes, complete infatuation or complete anger/violence.

The Knights Tale Part II

In The Knight's Tale Part II, the dictation surrounding love is incredibly dark. Every aspect of love seems to be upsetting and horrid until the man decided there may be hope for him to fight for Emily. There are words like "woe", "death", "hollow", "cold", "alone", "moan", and "sickness"; that are reiterated throughout part 2. He looks to be a different person until Emily is there, and that brings up the overarching question of what Chaucer is saying about love? If he simply could not be happy until there seemed to be even the slightest glimmer of hope to see his beloved (even though he doesn't know her!!!), then what is that saying about love? That it must be an overpowering, overbearing, and overwhelming love?

The Knights Tale Part I

The Knights Tale Part I describes the characteristics of a lover, while also showing the importance of nature as well. To be a lover, a man must be a hero while the woman, not only a damsel but a delicate one at that. Describing how the two brothers went to jail, the Knights tale was constantly talking about the “great doings” this knight did, and how women simply flocked to him. When the brothers were in jail, they already acted like the lady belonged to them from simply just seeing her. Nature plays a big part in this description, for when they first saw this “fair” lady, she was going around the garden, picking flowers, and the Knight’s tale was relating these things in nature to said lady. Planets and paganism seem to play a role as well, there are plenty of instances where Venus and Gods are brought up. The role these insights play seem to help Chaucer describe the characters hypocrisy while on surface-level, the characters seem noble. Chaucer portrays Emily as an object that belongs to the men without her knowledge to show how courtly love truly was during his time. Even at the end, the jealousy the one brother is showing the other even though he is not free, but he could still see her, it's incredibly silly.