2. The Wife of Bath's Tale is considered by some critics to indicate that Chaucer may have been a feminist. Why might they believe this? Do you agree? Remember to cite evidence from the text or some other source.
According to Lewis ( 2015), he states that Chaucer, in his early life, he was married and had children and his children and in-laws were mostly women. So which means that he practically grew up with Women but still held on to his traditional views as a male. By reading his poet, The wife of Bath's tale, we can discuss that the story is a feminist story, i believe, because the women want to stand up to herself like her husband, for example, and she also believes that in a sexual relationship, both characters must "obey each other" (Lewis, 2015). I believe it's wrong to abuse both partners in the relationship because both are human beings and you don't need to be a feminist for it. I guess you should just respect each other in their relationship. For a fact, traditions are mostly created from people and they make up stories. For example, in today's society, India still holds an ideology that women can't do what males do like getting a job, sex, having fun. In rural countries, it is forbidden for a female to have a sexual relationship after marriage. The rural people held an old ideology and they don't want western perspectives to affect them. But i believe that Indian women should do anything she wants and it's her body to do what she believes in. I still hold onto some traditions like sex before marriage. i think should only have sex with the person you want to be with forever but in some areas, it's okay because some relationships don't turn out what they want it to be.
Back to the women in the Wife of Bath's tale, as you can see that India still holds old traditions soi can say that Women aren't feminists but is Claucer a feminist in this situation. Many poets write about different things, love, family, heroism and feminism but it doesn't mean that they value that. But according to Havery ( 2011), argues in his essay that he was "unforgotten feminism" and he was an active protagonist in the female movement in 1848. He states that Claucer wrote poems about women lacking control in marriages, divorce or just personally. Whereas, Lewis (2019), concludes that he was a "proto-feminist." In my defence, i agree with Lewis ( 2015) and Harvey (2011) opinions about womanhood and such but women should never have to make a choice to do something.
Reference:
Harvey. (2011, February 16). Forgotten feminist: Claude Vignon (1828?1888), revolutionary and femme de lettres. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09612020400200411
Reference:
Harvey. (2011, February 16). Forgotten feminist: Claude Vignon (1828?1888), revolutionary and femme de lettres. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09612020400200411
Lewis. (2015, May 30). Is Chaucer's The Wife of Bath a Feminist Character?. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/the-wife-of-bath-feminist-character-3529685
Lewis. (2015, May 30). Was Geoffrey Chaucer an Early Feminist?. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/geoffrey-chaucer-early-feminist-3529684
Hi!
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed your background information on Chaucer as it provides a foundation for your reasoning that I hadn’t read previously. I understand your point about being “surrounded by women” as it theoretically becomes logical why Chaucer would advocate for women or display characteristics of feminism - however, I take issue with the idea that men have to have close connections to women to see them as fully-fleshed human beings, though for his time period he’s still pretty progressive, I guess. I like that you tied this perspective back into your own cultural viewpoint - it adds another layer to your argument in that it shows how widespread patriarchal values are; they didn’t just exist in Chaucer’s time or location but many, many others. As a result, it further proves how revelatory Chaucer’s writings were - which is, I’m assuming, the point. In your concluding statement, you write “but women should never have to make a choice to do something” and I was just wondering what you meant by that? Overall, great job Karishma!