Chaucer’s Ambivalent Attitude Towards Women In The Canterbury Tales

Geoffrey Chaucer(about 1340 ~ 1400),known as the "father of English poetry",is the most outstanding poet in the 14 th century.In his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales,Chaucer vividly depicts the rich and colorful social life of all ranks with a large number of stories,some of which are about gender relationship.These stories largely reflect the reality of both the sexes in medieval England and Chaucer’s ambivalent attitude towards women.Taken "The Wife of Bath’s Tale","The Clerk’s Tale","The Merchant Tale" and"Chaucer’s Tale of Miliboeus" in The Canterbury Tales as research objects,this thesis will study the gender relationship from the perspective of feminism,arguing that contradiction is the most important feature of Chaucer’s attitude towards the relationship between women and men.Through the description of female characters in The Canterbury Tales,Chaucer shows feminist tendency,declaring that women should resist the role that the patriarchal society attaches to them and that women should pursue their happiness.Meanwhile,he agrees with some traditional views that women should be in subordinate positions and obey men’s will.Therefore,based on the above two aspects,Chaucer’s feminist views are ambivalent.Although his attitude towards women is ambivalent,his work shows his great concern for women issues,which is forward-looking.From the perspective of feminism,this thesis will use literature research method to probe deeply into Chaucer’s attitude towards women in The Canterbury Tales from a dialectical perspective.The thesis is composed of four parts: introduction,literature review and theoretical foundation,the main body,and the conclusion.Chapter three,chapter four andchapter five are the main body of this thesis.Chapter three analyzes feminist consciousness embodied by Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales in three aspects: establishment of women’s subject status,women’s rebellion against the medieval marriage and the Christian doctrines and women’s pursuit of their happiness.In chapter four,Chaucer can not completely get rid of the impact of some traditional views through the analysis of this work.Thus,he shows anti-feminist tendency.This is reflected by the abnormal means of getting their wealth and their dominance,by the absence of women’s discourse,and by women’s submission to men’s will.In chapter five,the reasons of Chaucer’s ambivalent attitude are discussed,revealing the social and the personal factors of his ambivalence in The Canterbury Tales.The complexity of social and personal factors has led to the ambivalence of Chaucer’s attitude towards women.Based on this,this thesis is to help readers form a more objective understanding of reasons of Chaucer’s ambivalent feminist view.Through the analysis of Chaucer’s ambivalent attitude,this thesis is aimed at providing some help for readers to appreciate the stories about gender relationship in The Canterbury Tales.Moreover,Chaucer’s reflection on the relationship between men and women can guide readers to think about the gender relationship’s problems of contemporary people,which is the significance of the author’s discussion on Chaucer’s ambivalent feminist view.