Women in The Canterbury Tales: the Prioress, the Wife of Bath, the Second Nun, a hen and a lady falcon

Abstract

In a society controlled by men, the Church and its authorities, fourteen century women had little space for their personal aspirations in life. Their submission and passivity to men controlled all the facets of their existence. Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales present a unique and copious vision of medieval society through his variety of characters belonging to different social classes, thus providing the perfect source from which to analyze women’s roles in the Middle Ages. From his twenty-nine pilgrims, Chaucer only chose to introduce three women: the Prioress, the Wife of Bath and the Second Nun. Though many other women appeared in the Tales, none of them were given voice. This choice yields many interpretations, from those who critique Chaucer to those who applaud him. This work analyzes the roles of the three medieval women who appear in The Canterbury Tales, their possibilities in such society and tests if their depiction is accurate. Aspects such as their characterization, attitudes and actions from both their Prologues and Tales will be studied according to already existing analyses. Moreover, two other uncommon but surprising female characters, a hen and a lady falcon, will be investigated and subjected to the supposition of “what if” they could be considered as representatives of real medieval women. In doing so, a better understanding of Chaucer’s women characters, and most importantly, of the women’s role in such era, will be presented.