The Power Of Women In Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

In society men are perceived to be the leaders and always in charge, but in reality they are not always the most powerful. Today women are doctors, teachers and managers which are all positions of power, but are not always known as powerful. In a similar way, women from Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer had a lot of power without their power being noticed. Men carried all of the authority in society, but these men were easily controlled and manipulated by women. In Canterbury Tales women were able to manipulate and control men through their beauty, proving that women had the ability to have equal power to men, but were viewed as inferiors because of the way women acquired their power
The male characters in Canterbury Tales easily …show more content…
By Sunday next, if I am to look smart/And do my husband honour I must part/With-well, a hundred francs….The monk gave the answer….For I will bring you down a hundred Francs….and clasped her closely, giving her a riot/ Of kisses(162). In this dialogue between the monk and the merchant’s wife, the monk is clearly getting baited into helping out the wife. The wife makes it seem like her husband is rude because she won’t give him a hundred francs. The monk seeing the opportunity to help out the wife and possibly earn her love, agrees to help her out without thought. The wife was aware that she just needed to act desperate to earn a hundred francs. Although the merchant's wife just earned a hundred francs in a minute she is still viewed as less powerful than men. In a regular society the most powerful and respected men earn their money through their wits. Meanwhile, the merchant’s wife used her wits just like any man and didn’t earn the same respect. Likewise, Alison from the Miller’s Tale used her wits to get rid of Absolon: “So kiss me, if you can’t do more than that/….And if I do will you be off/….and at the window out she put her hole/….For from the time he kissed her hinder parts/he didn’t give a tinker’s curse for tarts”(102-103). Obviously, Alison was aware that she could exploit Absolon in order to make him hate her. By tricking Absolon to kiss her butt, she was able to get rid of Absolon. In this situation Alison had more power over Absolon because Absolon was love struck after he heard Alison would kiss him. Although tricking an enemy to kiss your butt is not a conventional way to show you power, it was effective. Similar to the other female characters Alison was not viewed as powerful because of her gender even though she contained the power of any