Sex and Greed in Chaucers The Canturbury Tales - Book Report/Review Example

Sex and Greed In Chaucers “The Canterbury Tales” “The Canterbury Tales” by Geoffrey Chaucer written in 14th century is a collection of short stories with each story giving a glimpse of the several facets of life of the people of that era. Group of pilgrims while on their way towards the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket at Canterbury Cathedral organized among themselves story telling contest. Within each story is reflected one or the other moral of life and a satire of the contemporary society. In the tales, the most sensitive issues Chaucer raised are the way women perceived in the middle ages, her sexual instincts and the quality which she adored and had to worn as prescribed by the society along with the avaricious attitude many people had to adopt in their lives. “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” are the two best among all the tales to highlight the feelings of people about their suppressed sexual life and the values they hold in their life. Chaucer especially made the reference of a woman with her prologue as he goes on describing her and the story she would narrate. He even goes on describing about her clothing in his General Prologue. She holds a unique position among the pilgrims but evidences suggest that though she was earlier assigned a different tale to tell as was told by Shipman yet fortunately for her she received her own tale to tell as her importance in the group increased. “The Wife of Bath” is a story foretold with the woman’s perspective and by the woman on the issues that were affecting her daily life. These issues were of marriage, sovereignty and virginity. Alison is described in the “Wife of bath” as a very strong and bold woman who can never accept defeat at any cost and attains whatever she wants to have. She believes this is how the things should be and wanted the men to obey her and not to be controlled and subjected by them. She treats marriage in economic terms and her body as commodity which is sold in exchange for wealth and money. In her own marriage, she feels threatened to be overpowered by her husband and believes that commodifying the sex in the marriage can only relieve women and exert her control over her husband. The story of her first three marriages is related in a language that creates a relationship between the sex and marriage. For her sex is a kind of payment in a marriage. In her defense of the male genitals she says, “set/ That man shall pay unto his wife his debt?/ Now wherewith should he ever make payment,/ Except he used his blessed instrument? (135-138)” This thinking of hers is derived from the fourteenth-century idea of sex as a marital “debt” or in other words it becomes obligatory for the husband to pay to his wife. In her own marriages too, her sex becomes a commodity or a wealth in exchange for the fee she receives from her husbands. While relating about her first three husbands, she brings all the three under one group, “The three were good men and were rich and old (203) and “They’d given me their gold, and treasure more (210).” To get the maximum benefit from her husbands, wife makes the use of sexuality as her instrument. For her, there is no other reason wife gives her body to her husband to enjoy sex than to get back their land and treasure, as she would say, “Why should I take heed, then, that I should please, / Save it were for my profit or my ease? (219-220)” The Wife of Bath would never make any effort to give pleasure to her husband sexually unless she believed she would be profited from it. Sex not only provides financial security but also empowers her. Wife recalls that whenever any of her husbands showed any kind of misconduct, she would refuse to have a sex with him. Wife’s attitude towards sex gives her dominating position over her husband’s wealth and anytime she would make her husband subject to her whims. The day she holds back her sexual instincts, she was sure to have handsome amount of money from her husband and when her husband would pay her then only she would permit them to enjoy their part of sex. The way wife controls her sexual feelings shows how perfect she is in her trade, as she knows in this life everything can be sold with money and for husband also it is a lesson that at a right price, he can buy his wife’s sexual favors. Even though Wife’s parents had forced her into the first marriage, still her entering into the marriage four times is not justified. She does not enjoy sex in her marriage but this is just her forte to earn and gain power. This story and the revelation of the truth and her bold statements are the satire of the society and its rituals in the fourteenth century, where the woman enters into the wedlock only to please her husband and in turn her husband would favor her by supporting her or bestowing her with wealth or fortune. She has no other right except to keep her husband happy and satiated. Never in her life she has described her life as barren or she is even dissatisfied. She in fact is more satisfied in her present life. She is happy with the fact that she has what she wants from the life and the marriage. She rejoices and feels proud of her decisions she made on marriages. Further, wife never portrays or ever says any ill will or evil about her husbands, on the contrary she would say all are worthy in her eyes. The underlying reason what the analysis says it was her ardent wish to have a control over men. Her greatest wish was to feel powerful and free in marriage and only by pursuing this policy she could achieve her goals. Her main aim of getting again and again married was to gain superiority over males. This was against the society and the doctrine of church. Only at the time of her fourth marriage she feels that her power is threatened. Instead of being sexually controlling the men, here she is forced to respect the man’s sexual independence too. The fact that husband has another woman means she loses her sexual leverage. This would mean a defeat for her and to overcome her defeat she comes up with another solution. She goes to another man only to leave this man bewildered, angry and miserable. With her fifth husband, she tries to be different when she trades her wealth for sex but this does not go well as she feels this has rendered her helpless. Chaucer in the tale attacks bitterly on the women in holding the conventional attitude of men towards the sex. In the middle ages, it was the duty of woman to remain subjugated by the man and this was her individuality she should show and in the “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” it was this outburst and eagerness to develop her independent individuality that made her to tell the tale making herself as the paw. But on the other hand the avariciousness she has for money and power is the Chaucer’s satire towards the women of the age in particular as well as men in general. Avaricious attitude in the “Pardoner’s Tale” displays the lives of the characters they have to adapt in their real lives. As Pardoner displays many important characteristic traits but his confession about the main thing in life about which he cares the most is the money throws the different shades of the people of middle ages. On one hand, Pardoner is a priest whose character should outshine other’s and must endure virtue and moral attitudes but his avarice in him brings to light the moral deprivation of the people of that era. In the “Pardoner’s Tale,” three friends begin on their journey in the pursuit to win over death. On the way, an old man leads them to a treasure and on finding it, the trait of greediness surfaces in their character. The three friends decide upon themselves to get first the bread and wine to celebrate their finding. As the youngest friend goes to buy wine, the other two contrive to get him murdered so they can divide the treasure between themselves. This idea was perpetuating in the mind of even the youngest, “put it in his mind to buy poison / With which he might kill his two companions (383-384).” The greed makes all the three men to stumble upon each other. Though in the beginning all of them show loyalty towards each other yet in the end their loyalty vanishes as they all make fruitless attempt to steal the treasure for themselves. Characters in the “Pardoner’s Tale” display the sycophantic trait so polished by Pardoner himself as at the onset in “Pardoner’s Prologue”, he preaches all that “greed is the root of evils”, yet he himself possesses this trait as he has tried to sell his sacred as well magical relics to the people there at a nominal fees. He uses the trick to lure the men as he says those who have committed guilt in their life time or those who are unfaithful especially wives should not come forward for his supernatural objects. This would in fact induce more people to come forward to buy as he boasts he has earned hundred marks in a year in this private business of his. Through the Pardoner and his various tales, poet as clearly described by Winthrop Wetherbee, “described a nation unsure of its identity, distrustful of traditional authority, and torn by ambition and materialism into separate spheres of interest (6).” Pardoner himself confesses that his main goal has always been to grab people’s money which is sheer against his moral conscience and what his duty demands him to do. The biggest irony can be found in the lines where he could be heard explaining that greed is his vice and on the other hand this vice he preaches with such a strong force that it would compel others to repent because of their greediness. This would bring him more money as people were always eager to give money to redeem themselves from their sins. From the Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale, Chaucer developed the individualistic traits of human beings in their association with the society. In the society of middle ages, money was every thing, as this money could only buy them food, clothing or other riches in the life. This yearning for money would make them greedy. Though they never wanted to be greedy as Pardon himself revealed yet they had to adopt this trait in their nature to survive and also had to wear the mask of a noble and a generous human being who cared for others and wanted the soul of others to live in peace. “The Summoner’s Tale” is full of paradoxes which unravels hypocrisy, and lies underneath the issue of eschatology and scatology meaning to delve into the matters of afterlife juxtaposed with the luxuries and materialistic endeavors of the living human beings on this earth. Chaucer vociferously hits with an irony on the claim of Friar that he can talk to God and uses such a noble provocation as a charity for his own selfish purposes. He though moves in the country to hear the confessions yet uses his power to exhort money from the rich and sundry. He has also opened an agency whereby he allows men and women to meet for fees. Avarice compels the men whether a Pardoner or a Summoner or any religious man to perform the deeds they should not as their profession and the ethics of the society demand and Chaucer was very well aware of this. In the Part 1 of the “The Canon’s Yeoman’s Tale” too, Canon and Yeoman main aim is to convert the base metals into gold. About the second canon, Yeoman reveals is even worse as compared to the first one as he uses tricks not only for creating gold but also stealing it. Yeoman while recalling the tale says that the greed can destroy even the righteous man in his pursuit of the trivial objects. Second Canon becomes so selfish that he robs the whole town and his greed becomes so horrible that he could be compared with the traitor Judas who betrayed Christ. (Whittock, 270) “The Reeve’s Tale” is the revelation of the sexual instincts the man can go into as well as his greediness. In the charivari, having their roots dug deep in their traditional culture, people could easily disparage or mock a man who has been a passive husband to a tyrannical wife. The sexual traits of the individuals are described against the background of the patriarchy culture that marked the charivari society. “The Reeve’s Prologue” presents darker side of the lust; eyes and bodily traits full of lust of an elderly man who visualizes himself in a misapplied natural analogies and where the nasty acts of the individuals are repaid in the same say. As Reeves plays prank on the clerk so the clerk repays it back by sleeping with this wife and daughter. Not only this, he is also smashed by his wife in the morning not in a confusion or by accident but with intentions. She has been disgusted with the husband who cheats the customers and longed to show her retribution but was not getting the opportunity. Though her aggression against her husband is on account of his attitude and wrong deeds yet the irony that lays hidden reveals different story. She is aware of the fact that she has betrayed him by sleeping with clerk and by rebuking him she wants to hide her infidelity. The demand of the society disallows the married woman to sleep with another man still she defies the conventional norms of the society. The man would find himself relieved with possible satisfaction of his sexual needs as well as financial needs. Here wife finds more enjoyment in this form of sexual relationship, as she is disgruntled with her husband’s nature and attitude. The bid for sex is an adventure for both of them but in this endeavor of theirs, there is also hidden greed which Chaucer juxtaposes through these characters and their aggressive as well as toxic relationship with each other. Through these tales, Chaucer reflects the England of the fourteenth century with all its follies and foibles. He represents his own age and holds the mirror to the life of his own time. He is the social chronicle of this age reflecting the century not in fragments but in complete whole. In all these stories are raised the questions of moral values and how emotional vacuity and depravity entails the men and women to adopt their sexual life in their personality and how greed for the wealth and power take over even the righteous and pious men whose moral values people so admire and cherish. Works Cited Chaucer, Geoffrey. Canterbury Tales. READ BOOKS, 2006. Wetherbee, Winthrop. Geoffrey Chaucer: the Canterbury Tales. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004. Whittock, Trevor. A Reading of The Canterbury Tales. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press, 1970. . Read More