Women in The Canterbury Tales

Abstract

Known as the “father of English poetry”, Geoffrey Chaucer vividly depicts the abundance and colorfulness of social life in 14th century in his masterpiece work, The Canterbury Tales. In its a large number of stories, different images of women in that age are presented. Starting from a different perspective, this thesis approaches the story in the light of feminism. By giving women their own discourse, or describing their living circumstances, Chaucer shows the entrapment of middle age women in an authentic way. Nevertheless what the social statuses women are, they are classified as the supplement of men. Women suffer a lot of oppression from religion to gender, in the society at that time, they rarely have the right to voice for themselves and have limited opportunity to improve their depth of thought. Therefore, they have no way but to be angle or temptress. In this way a great realistic spirit is embodied in Chaucer’s work that transcends time.