WAS GEOFFREY CHAUCER AN EARLY FEMINIST?

WAS GEOFFREY CHAUCER AN EARLY FEMINIST?

Geoffrey Chaucer had connections with strong and important women and brought the experience of women to his work The Canterbury Tales . In hindsight, could he be considered a feminist? The term was not used in its day, but did it promote women's advancement in society?

CHAUCER'S BACKGROUND

Chaucer was born into a merchant family in London. The name is derived from the French word for "shoemaker", although his father and grandfather were winemakers with financial success. His mother was the heir to a number of London businesses owned by her uncle. He became a page in the home of a noblewoman, Elizabeth de Burgh, Countess of Ulster, who married Lionel, Duke of Clarence, a son of King Edward III. Chaucer worked the rest of his life as a courtier, clerk, and civil servant.

LINKS

When he was in his twenties, he married Philippa Roet, a woman waiting for  Philippa of Hainaut , the queen consort of Edward III. His wife's sister, originally also a waiting lady of Queen Philippa, became a governess for the children of John of Gaunt and his first wife, another son of Edward III. This sister,  Katherine Swynford , became John of Gaunt's lover and later his third wife. The children of their association, born before their marriage but later legitimized, were known as Beauforts. One descendant was Henry VII, the first  Tudor king  , through his mother  Margaret Beaufort .Edward IV. And Richard III. Descended from her mother Cecily Neville as well  as  Catherine Parr , the sixth wife of Henry VIII.

Chaucer was well connected with women who, while fulfilling very traditional roles, were well educated and likely to hold their own at family gatherings.

Chaucer and his wife had several children - the number is not known for certain. Their daughter Alice married a duke. A great-grandson, John de la Pole, married a sister of Edward IV and Richard III; His son, also called John de la Pole, was born by Richard III. named as his heir and continued to claim the crown in exile in France after Henry VII became king.

LITERARY HERITAGE

Chaucer is sometimes considered the father of English literature because he wrote in English that people of the time spoke more than writing in Latin or French, as was the custom. He wrote poetry and other stories, but  The Canterbury Tales  is his best work.

Of all of his characters, the Woman from Bath is the most commonly identified as feminist, although some analysis suggests that she is a representation of the negative behavior of women measured against her time.

THE CANTERBURY STORIES

Geoffrey Chaucer's stories of human experiences in the Canterbury Tales are often used as evidence that Chaucer was some kind of protofeminist.

Three pilgrims who are women actually have a voice in the stories : the wife of Bath, the prioress and the second nun - at a time when women were still largely expected to remain largely silent. Some of the stories told by men in the collection also include female characters or reflections about women. Critics have often pointed out that the female narrators are more complex characters than most male narrators. While fewer women than men are on the pilgrimage, they are at least portrayed as equals on the journey.The attached illustration (from 1492) of travelers eating together at a table in an inn shows little difference in their behavior.

Even in the stories told by male characters, women are not mocked, as they were in much of the literature of the time. Some stories describe male attitudes towards women that are harmful to women: the knight, the miller, and the sailor among these. The stories that describe an ideal of virtuous women describe impossible ideals. Both types are flat, simple, and self-centered. Some others, including at least two of the three female narrators, are different.

Women in the stories have traditional roles: they are women and mothers. But they are also people with hopes and dreams and criticism of the limits that society has set for them. They are not feminists in the sense that they criticize the boundaries of women in general and propose equality in social, economic or political terms, or are in some way part of a larger movement for change. But they express discomfort about the roles convention places them in, and they want more than just a little adjustment in their own life in the present.Even when their experiences and ideals are expressed in this work, they challenge part of the current system, if only by showing that the narrative of the human experience is not complete without female voices.

In the prologue , the Lady of Bath talks about a book that her fifth husband owned, a collection of many of the texts common at the time, which dealt with the dangers of marriage with men - especially men who were scholars. Her fifth husband, she says, read to her from this collection every day. Many of these anti-feminist works were the products of church leaders. This story also tells of the violence her fifth husband used against her and how she regained some power in the relationship through counter-violence.