Misogynistic Role Of Women In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

Throughout The Canterbury Tales, women are largely treated as nothing more than objects, existing to serve a purpose for a male. In the tales, when some male characters deem a female character as desirable, they decide to take them as if they are a book on a shelf. The women in these tales are not sought after for their intelligence, personalities or abilities; the levels of treatment towards the women is based more on their looks than on any other factor. At times when the male characters are rejected, it often leads to misogynistic actions, and there are multiple demonstrations in the tales which mirror the of the level of entitlement that men felt towards women at this time in history. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the role of women is to be objectified by men, whether it be for lust, infatuation, or to feed a male’s ego by being a prize.
Firstly, it is demonstrated multiple times throughout the book that women are often considered little more than sexual objects to be used at a male’s discretion. This is often decided by the men …show more content…
Women were only considered to be valuable if they could be used for their bodies, become a wife, or were something pretty to look at. The men in the tales feel extremely entitled to the women, and misogyny and objectification are recurring themes throughout the tales. Many of the male characters become actively upset when denied the female that they desire, even stating that they will die if they cannot have the woman in question. Most of the female characters have no claim to their own lives. Women literally owed their bodies to men; they are viewed as sexual objects and prizes instead of human beings. The tales are reflective of the views on women and relationships during medieval times, and show the struggles that women went through at that time in terms of