Feminine Romances of Chaucer - Essay Example

Chaucer’s Feminine Romances Although the concept of a romance novel has taken on negative connotations in the 21st century, when it is applied to medieval literature, it means something entirely different. The medieval romance is characterized by sweeping adventure and instances of courtly love characterized by chaste maidens and noble knights all woven around some kind of moral instruction. “It taught the aristocracy how to behave in order to maintain the social order, while entertaining them at the same time.”1 For subject matter, most of these romances tended to focus upon the battles and events of the past, such as the battles of Troy, the conquests of Alexander the Great or the chivalric traditions rising out of the Arthurian legend. Among these stories, the primary focus was typically placed upon the action of the story, the battles and the skirmishes that occurred between characters, and the aftermath of such behavior, such as the winning of the lady, the acquisition of worldly fame or the re-enforcement of nobility. However, not all stories followed this basic formula, especially as the written tradition began to grow through the 14th century. As writers began to experiment with various means of recording the stories that had been passed down through the oral tradition as well as working to develop stories of their own, new modes of expression began to emerge. For example, Colin Burrow assertively states that Chaucer wrote a feminine kind of romance. What is a feminine kind of romance and how does this apply to Chaucer? To answer these questions, the following paper will first define the characteristics of the kind of ‘feminine’ romance Burrow was discussing and then analyze three of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales – the Wife of Bath, the Prioress and the Knight’s Tale – to determine whether this description applies. The concept of the feminine romance has a great deal to do with the underlying structural format of the novel, particularly as it relates to the issues surrounding gender and the differences between the various ways in which the genders relate to others. For example, studies continue to show even today that women place greater emphasis upon the concept of relationships while men place more emphasis upon action.2 It should not be surprising, therefore, to discover that feminine romances, as such, are primarily concerned with the relationships of characters rather than the actions they undertake. This includes a certain focus upon the emotional lives of the characters as opposed to their physical living conditions, but does not necessarily exclude such issues as confinement, customs or other external factors that must be overcome. Of primary importance in the characterization of these stories as feminine romances is the concept of trying to understand the female’s point of view, whether the story is told in the female or the male voice.3 The plot lines of these stories typically focus upon the achievement of feminine aims, such as marriage, freedom or some other form of consummation. In most cases, they serve to reinforce community values for women, such as home and family, yet they do so in such a way as to present the attainment of these goals as the achievement of the woman’s innermost desires rather than an external construct placed on the woman. In some cases, however, the outcome reached beyond the confinement of the female character within the safe home and family life expected of her. In these cases, the woman is usually portrayed as finding freedom from these constraints through other socially acceptable and completely fulfilling means. Looking at Chaucer’s stories, based upon Burrow’s claim, should illustrate several of these characteristics. Perhaps the most unlikely of the tales to present a feminine romance might be considered to be that of the Knight’s Tale. This is a story told from the perspective of the noble Knight who values above all things the concepts of chivalry and the ‘right’ place of women within this world. The knight, a man of great wealth, reputation and honor, fills his speech with the courtly manners and chivalric actions that are a central part of his world. “His courtly preoccupation with truth, honor, liberality and courtesy shines through the noble soldiers Arcite and Palamon, illuminating the wise, righteous, merciful ruler Theseus and highlighting the faultless Lady Emily … Fortune and her false wheel control the plot as regal personas are maneuvered by chance and by the gods.”4 In this respect, his story falls within the classical definition of the romance. However, there remains some doubt as to whether this story would also be classified as a feminine romance. As has been explained, one of the primary characteristics of the feminine romance lies in the focus of the characterizations – are they based upon relationships, emotions and inner passion or are they based more upon the outward actions and events that comprise the plot. The Knight’s story is full of the importance of honor and oath-taking among men of the nobility. Theseus swears to hold the two nobles Arcite and Palamon prisoner forever, but changes his mind upon the pleading of a friend for the one and the noble escape of the other. Arcite and Palamon swear brotherhood forever, but quickly forget this oath when they each fall in love with Emily. In this sense, Chaucer exposes the hypocrisy of such oaths in the face of the chivalric conception of love, regardless of the knight’s conception of these actions as of the highest nobility while he also shifts the attention from consideration of the actual events to a consideration of the reasons and motivations of the individual characters, making even this story begin to take on the characteristics of feminine romance. Also in this story, Chaucer defends the ideal of womanhood in a courtly story of love endured, fought for and finally won not through actions as much as through emotional appeal. Throughout the story, the object of the young men’s affections is the innocent Emily, sister to Hippolyta who is wife to Prince Theseus. Emily is described as a perfectly chaste maiden, going about the typical activities of a well-bred girl, collecting flowers, walking or simply moving about the house. The Knight describes her as “That Emily, who was fairer to be seen / Than lilies rising on their stalks of green / And fresher than the May when flowers are new – / For she contended with the rose in hue.”5 The men who fall in love with her from their prison cells, Arcite and Palamon, do so from a great distance and without her knowledge in keeping with the courtly tradition of worshipping womanhood from afar as well as with the isolated nature of female association. This distance serves to bring the story out of the feminine; however, the power of Emily within the story brings it back. Throughout the story, the Knight works to paint an image of the Garden of Eden for Emily to occupy in the position of a goddess or heavenly angel. Her prayer to Diana indicates a strong affinity for her feminine role as well as illustrates her sudden change of heart upon the conclusion of the trial at arms as Diana has indicated she must marry one of the two fighters. Although she hasn’t typified the ideal woman as defined by men in the past, her emotional response to Diana’s command ensures she finds satisfaction within her new position. The Wife of Bath, on the other hand, immediately breaks the rules of true womanhood by being involved in commerce as a highly skilled seamstress as she is described in the prologue to her story. This vocation allows her to be in charge of her income, something that a true woman of the chivalric code would never have a chance to pursue while still retaining the type of freedom of movement the wife enjoys. With this freedom of commerce, the wife is able to flaunt many other customs by pursuing her own desires and styles of living. She tells lewd tales, has been married at least five times and has countless other lovers besides who are only hinted at with the comment that these marriages were “not counting other company in youth.”6 She’s well traveled, having seen such widespread places as Jerusalem, Rome, Boulogne, Santiago and Cologne. Despite her success, the wife’s physical appearance does not present the kind of beauty that would immediately provide her with the type of power enjoyed by Emily. To begin with, she is described as being “deaf in either ear.”7 She has a bold face that is fair, yet is also described as red, indicating too much time spent in the weather or perhaps in the beer barrel, further suggesting a lifestyle far different from that of the Lady Emily. While it’s true her attire is described as being every bit as good as that of noble ladies, it is also described so as to indicate an ostentatious, flamboyant personality that demands attention, again flaunting the concept of the genteel woman while highlighting the idea of a freedom and fluidity that enables her to be who she wants to be. The tale told by the Wife of Bath is almost an exact opposite of that told by the Knight. She speaks in a plain, straightforward way that includes actions not even recognized by the knight in his tale. Although her story begins with the adventures of a young knight, in true chivalric style, this knight acts most commonly in his first encounter with a woman. “In his path he saw a maiden walking / Before him, stark alone, right in his course. / This young knight took her maidenhead by force.”8 Not only is the concept of a ‘maidenhead’ not a part of the Knight’s usual language, the concept of a knight assaulting a woman, whom he’s sworn to protect, in this manner does not fit into the Knight’s view of the world. However, it does present the story from the more realistic terms that would be afforded by a woman, who would not be able to easily ignore such behavior regardless of the status of the woman in question. This crime is made even worse by the qualification that the knight in question was one of Arthur’s knights, the ideal of the chivalric tradition. Through the coarse language used within this story, Chaucer indicates the Wife of Bath has a greater freedom within her speech than that possessed by even the noble Knight, providing her with strength and freedom that is in keeping with the concept of a feminine romance.9 In addition to the differences in basic language used, the story told by the Wife of Bath is of a decidedly feminine perspective, bringing out the female character as a figure capable of possessing power and control. Uncharacteristically, it is the queen who spares the knight’s life following the rape and sends him on his quest. His punishment is to discover the one thing women most want and he must accomplish this task within the space of one year. He fails at this task until he finds an old woman sitting alone in a field. She agrees to tell him the answer but he must agree to accept her proposal of marriage. Therefore, his success is entirely dependent upon the willingness of a woman to assist him in his quest. Throughout this narrative, it is the woman who has complete control over the man; the older she is, the more control she has. It is the woman who proposes marriage and the man who must comply, however unwillingly. Through this story, the Wife of Bath presents an unarguable feminine romance that highlights the needs of the woman over and above the actions of the men. The eventual answer that emerges to the queen’s question in this story is that “Women desire to have the sovereignity / And sit in rule and government above.”10 This is again illustrated as the young knight demonstrates he has learned to allow women the power to choose for themselves. “After the marriage, the ‘Curtain Harangue’ or curtain-lecture involves the hag speaking of gentilesse (of deed, not blood), poverty (equals honesty), and age (the knight will not find himself cuckolded). One would not expect all this from a young wife, but with experience comes wisdom.”11 In each of these statements, the Wife of Bath argues against every understanding the majority of society held as nearly universal truths as well as argues her own continuing wish to be desired as an older and experienced woman. Such blatant sexuality is also in direct opposition to the concept of the virginal, young, innocent and sweetly beautiful image of the properly and male-defined courtly woman. The story gains a happy ending when the young knight demonstrates that he has learned his lesson through his own experience. “The hag gives the knight a difficult decision to make, and when he leaves the decision to her, he is rewarded with the best of both worlds. As charming as the story’s ending may be, the Wife nevertheless ends with a curse on those men who will not be ruled by their wives.”12 The Prioress, although also presented as an autonomous woman in a man’s world, is described as possessing all of the attributes a man was supposed to look for in a woman in Chaucer’s time. She was “smiling, modest was and coy.”13 She could sing well in the proper way, speak French fluently, had excellent manners so that “never from her lips let morsels fall, / Nor dipped her fingers deep in sauce,”14 was pleasant to be around in any company and was charitable almost to a fault. Physically, she is given attractive attributes such as a fine nose, bright blue eyes, a small red mouth and a fair forehead. Chaucer tells his reader, “truth to tell, she was not undergrown,”15 indicating a pleasant figure that men are not supposed to notice in that way when looking at a nun. Her clothing is neat and is well-maintained as would be expected of a lady high born. However, she remains completely out of reach of the man’s world because of her choice in profession, one in which she is apparently content to remain as these physical attributes and intrinsic talents mark her as being capable of attracting a husband had that been her wish. This simple introduction to this character immediately establishes the story as falling within the realm of the feminine romance as well. Her tale, like that of the Knight, does not necessarily present the narrative from the female perspective as it centers upon the actions of a small boy. However, the primary desire of this small boy immediately emerges as wanting to honor the Virgin Mary, the only acceptably available female character within the Christian canon. This is exemplified not only in his daily actions to honor the image of her, but is also emphasized in his desire to be good for his widowed mother and his seemingly instinctual attraction to the hymn honoring the Madonna despite not understanding the Latin in which it was sung and thus not understanding it was a song to honor the Lady until after he had already been drawn by it during an unspecified period of time. Understanding what it is, the boy becomes obsessed with learning the song in its entirety even at the cost of punishments for not heeding his other lessons. Indeed, the boy dies as the result of this devotion, being moved to sing every day on his way to and from school despite the fact that no mention is ever made of his devotion to the Holy Church or the Blessed (male) Trinity. In her description of the Jews who committed the murder, the Prioress employs language and topics more often considered masculine because of their baseness: “In a privy they threw the boy, I say, / A place in which these Jews purged their entrails. / O cursed people, unchanged since Herod’s day.”16 The strength of character demonstrated as she illustrates her outrage at the murder surpasses the normally acceptable bounds of genteel behaviour and most definitely focuses attention upon the inner character of those individuals who would be capable of committing such a crime. “The nature of the tale itself must be studied. Analogues of the tale show that the Prioresss version is much more violent and bloody than other circulating versions.”17 This shift to a more powerful note in her call for vengeance for the poor mother waiting at home as well as through the charmed singing of the boy that brings praise and attention to the mother strongly supports the feminine romance concept. It is the power of the Virgin Mary that gives the child the ability to continue singing after he has been murdered just as it is the Mother Mary that will come for him as soon as the grain of rice is removed. In this story, like the Knight’s tale, the Prioress manages to couch her feminine perspective in terms of socially acceptable norms as well as express female autonomy and perspective as the story becomes a lesson in morality and proper Christian behaviour. Throughout each of these tales, it can be seen that Chaucer continues to present stories that focus upon the concept of a person’s relationships with others or with the inner motivations that drive the outer actions. Women are consistently provided with power greater than normally attributed to them such as the Knight’s Emily as she takes the position of goddess, the Wife’s freedom in making her own decisions and her story of a man completely dominated by women and the Prioress’ freedom in pursuing a career of her own as well as her emphasis upon the power of the Virgin Mary. Only in the Knight’s tale does the female perspective seem to be overshadowed by the chivalric code, but even here, the characteristics of the story focus upon motivations and relationships rather than battles and other more physical actions. The Wife demonstrates an easy acceptance of her own station and interests, freely sharing these with the others with no censure or self-consciousness while the Prioress provides an almost masculine outlook in the furious violence of her demand for retribution, yet keeps the concept feminine in her appeals for Christian concern, morality and the emphasis on the Mother’s love. As in the Knight’s tale, the Wife of Bath’s tale is characterized by a strong concern with the relationships shared between the young knight and the many women he meets throughout his story while the Prioress’ tale is concerned with the motivations of the boy to continue singing after his death as well as in relating the motivations of the Jews to kill him. Through story characteristics, perspectives and concerns, each of these tales can be seen to illustrate the concepts of a feminine romance, thus supporting the claim made by Burrows regarding Chaucer’s work. References Bakhtin, Mikhair. (1981; 1973). The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M.M. Bakhtin. Ed. Michael Holquist. Austin: University of Texas Press. Burrow, Colin. (1993). Epic Romance from Homer to Milton. Oxford: Clarendon. Chaucer, Geoffrey. (2003). Canterbury Tales. New York: Penguin Classics. Delahoyde, Michael. (2004). “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” Washington State University. Retrieved 26 April 2007 from Dosik, Diana. (2006). “Chaucer’s Knight’s Tale and Miller’s Tale.” Phillips Academy, Andover University. Retrieved 26 April 2007 from Schuler, R. S. (1975). “Role perceptions, satisfaction, and performance: A partial reconciliation.” Journal of Applied Psychology. Vol. 60, pp. 683-687. Tillotson, Diane. (3 May 2006). “Romance.” Medieval Writing. Available 26 April 2007 from Wickham, Victoria. (1999). “Chaucer’s Prioress: Simple and Conscientious, or Shallow and Counterfeit?” Luminarium. Available 26 April 2007 from Read More