Attitudes of Women of the Canterbury Tales

the beginning of the set Ages there was a shift in the poetic

representation of women. Chivalrous rime became less sensual

and to a greater extent elevated, and religious and philosophic ideas were

interwoven into the poetry. He finds that the essential feature,

however, was the locating of women and the new conception the

poets had of honey. This differed from the prevailing mickle in the

ancient world, where love meant nothing but the physical

relations between the sexes, with woman being seen simply as

woman, considered neither steep nor distinctly base. The woman had a social inferiority considered internal because of her limitations--this was a time when physical strength and the

ability for self-importancedefense were essential conditions of power. Since women lacked these qualities, they were relegated to a definite secondary position behind the men. Federn says that in the Germanic mind, there was a received reverential regard for women that was deeply rooted and that had been foreign in antiquity. The social position of women r arly corresponded to this professed reverence, but in poetry the attitude is seen in the treatment of the female and in a warmer feeling close to love and married life. On the other side is Christian doctrine, which in the early Middle Ages was entirely imbued with monkish ideas. Women were regarded as something bad and

Canterbury Tales both in the pilgrims themselves and in the characters in their stories. These women are neither better nor worse than they should be. They are much more factualistically portrayed than the idealized woman of Dante. They can be hypocritical and they can be saintly. They are sensual women engage by and often pursuing men, and they can as well be nobler. The church women, like the church men, are very human. The abbess is a woman of the church, while the Wife of Bath is a worldly woman. They are very much alike in many ways. The Wife of Bath loves to engage in the whirl of alms to show her piety and to affirm that she is one of the leading citizens and thus to be admired. She has had five husbands and other lovers.

She is described as a worthy woman and as having been so all her life. She has also had five husbands and has been with other men as well. She is representative of Chaucer's women in that Chaucer creates women who are rounded and real, with different facets to their personalities. In the tales there are numerous women who also show different facets of their personalities and the comprehensive descry Chaucer takes of the women of his time. This view is colored by the attitude taken toward love. In the tradition of courtly love that would soon develop, love is a dedication that transcends everything else in life. The lover's dedication to his beloved is strong and real even if she knows nothing about it. Such a love requires that the lover be dedicated to his love. It generates his poetry. There is something ethereal about this kind of love, much as the lover sees his beloved as an ethereal creature living above the rest of life. Chaucer's women are seen first as women and not as ethereal images. distinguish can be as entwining for Chaucer's characters as it is for the women in later on chivalric poetry, but Chaucer stands back from this involvement and sees it as another(prenominal) aspect of life rather than the ultimate purpose of life. In "T
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