Fabliau In The Stupid Knight

The fabliau genre has been a long-standing tradition in medieval writing. However, because of the reoccurring characteristics of the fabliau, it is a genre that is viewed as one-sided. Because of this, the fabliau genre is most often compared to and associated with the courtly love genre of writing during that time. Writers and poets of similar professional standing wrote both genres and both styles of writing were intended to be read by a similar audience. French writers in both genres incorporated very similar characteristics. Most of them contained a stupid husband, a beautiful wife, and a trick. What sets the fabliau genre apart from others of its kind is the fact that the husband is an active participant in the story. In the fabliaux, the husbands are the ones that the author sways readers to feel sympathy for; because of the sexist views, gender norms, and marital expectations. Although the women are the ones that are dissatisfied in their marriage and their husbands are not able to provide for them sexually, the husband is still often the one to receive sympathy from …show more content…
Tradition fabliaux conform a gender binary associating masculinity with reason and femininity with lust. In the case of The Stupid Knight however, neither of these gender binaries are maintained. Although the husband holds a position of knighthood, he is by no means portrayed as a masculine and providing husband. The same can be said for the wife. Even though she is sexually frustrated and seeks help, she is not driven by her lust or desire. She strives to help educate her husband, instead of straying from her marriage to receive sexual gratification. This goes against all gender binaries and traditional gender roles of that time. The wife remained faithful and hopeful for change and in turn was able to exercise her agency on her