Weeks 4-6: The Language of Seduction
1. Cite some variations in the Loathly Lady fabula across the three tales in your Reader. Focus on the conditions by which the lady is either beautiful or ugly, and the actions of the knight/king/"hero"...
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.
3. Hahn's essay (see critical reader) on The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle identifies the motif of the loathly lady, but arguably it has a different purpose than asserting the feminine. What does he think the function of the story is?
4. In the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean sonnets, how can we define "conceits"?
5. Discuss what you think is the most striking or outrageous example.
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.
3. Hahn's essay (see critical reader) on The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle identifies the motif of the loathly lady, but arguably it has a different purpose than asserting the feminine. What does he think the function of the story is?
4. In the context of Elizabethan and Jacobean sonnets, how can we define "conceits"?
5. Discuss what you think is the most striking or outrageous example.
6. What does Revard (1997) suggest about the relationship between language, sex, power and transgression in the English Renaissance?
2. I think to start, we will look at the definition of what a feminist is. So, a feminist is someone who believes men and women are equal, though some will say otherwise because everyone has their opinions and what not. Anyway, going with this definition of what a feminist is, critics might’ve believed that Chaucer may have been a feminist because of the way that he may of portrayed the women in the tale. He made the women powerful and to take charge. For example, the women were in charge of the fate of the knight, whether he was to be beheaded or not; “I grant thee life, if thou canst tell me. What thing it is that women most desire”. He was given time to go and find out the answer, if he couldn’t he was dead meat really. Moving along, before equality came into the picture, it seemed that society was supposedly patriarchal in those days. Women were not seen equal to that of men, they were I guess the stereotypical women where they stayed at home and catered to the needs and wants of their families. With that being said, Chaucer in a sense brought women up to the level of men in the story as women were calling the shots.
ReplyDeleteHowever I do not agree with the critics or the fact that Chaucer was a feminist. Going off the definition stated above, I personally think that there was a strong theme of female empowerment in the story rather than a equality of both genders. There was more emphasis on the women rather than on both sides. Not that female empowerment is necessarily a bad thing in general sense, but in reference to the story in specific I don’t think there was a equality in the story for both women and men. Unless, Chaucer tried to portray women in the roles typically viewed as a man's job, to maybe show that women too can do what men can. They can be take charge and be in authority.
3. From Hahn’s essay, besides the idea of feminine, he thinks that the function of the story is also heroine or woman serving the interests of the male chivalric society. Hahn mentions that's Ragnelle is the glue in the poem, the link between all the men. Ragnelle was I guess pretty much the answer to all their problems. She was able to undo the threat that her brother posed for the court and reconcile him to the Round Table; knew the answers to King Arthur’s problem which saves his life and his kingship; she gives opportunities to Sir Gawain to display his courtesy towards the kind then woman (Hahn, 1995). It’s almost to say that she was a important piece in each of their puzzle, if that makes sense.
ReplyDelete2. Feminism means people believe and support that man and woman should be equal in society, whatever economic or political, women should have the same right as men.
ReplyDeleteThe Wife of Bath’s Tale actually relevant the feminism topic, and Chaucer written a tale that women are powerful, for example King Arthur permit the Queen to make the judgement of the knight. Also, the story is around one question running “What thing it is the women most desire?” , probably Chaucer wrote this tale is try to attract readers on this question and make them think about it. Moreover, when the knight found the answer from the loathy lady sitting in the forest and talk the answer in open court to the Queen and other women, everybody agree his answer but the price is he should marry the loathy lady as his wife. On the bed, the loathy lady asked the frustrated knight “To have me ugly and old until I die, and be to you a true and humble wife, or have me young and fair but shall be at your house becuase of me or in some other place, as it may well be.” and the Knight answer that “I put me in your wise governance, choose yourself which may be most pleasure.” in this conversation shown that the loathy lady seem more initiative than the knight. In my own opinion, I am kind of agree that Chaucer is feminist because the whole tale is trend to the powerful female characters. However, I have a sense that the female had take over the male in this tale, for example the Queen “I grant thee life, if thou canst tell me What thing it is that women most desire. Beware, and keep thy neck-bone from iron!” and the loathy lady in public court required the Queen decied that she could marry the knight “The first thing that I would ask of him he would do, if it lay in his power”, these context intent to make man character passiveness. Therefore, The Wife of Bath’s Tale is considered the female empower literature and the author Chaucer relate to feminist.