The Power Of Women In The Clerk's Tale

Register to read the introduction… The Tale reveals that the perfectly good woman is powerful, or at least potentially so, insofar as her suffering and submission are fundamentally insubordinate and deeply threatening to men and to the concepts of power and gender identify upon which patriarchal culture is premised (Hansen, 190.) However, the happy ending brings the heroine the dubious reward of permanent union with a man whom the Clerk, embellishing his sources, has characterized as a sadistic tyrant, worst of men and cruelest of husbands (Hansen, 190.) As a final message and a warning for both men and women alike, the Clerk's tale ends with the following …show more content…
Griselda's supposedly unusual and seemingly innate ability to rule wisely and well, to pass good judgments and speak in ways that men admire and respect, to assume, that is, the power and position normally assigned to the best of men, fails to empower her or enable her to escape her subordinate gendered status (Hansen, 191.) However, Griselda's powers over her husband do not lie in her actions but rather in her response to remain impassive, choosing to remain faithful to the vow she once gave years ago. It is with her unflagging loyalty in her stance as a wife, more so than as a mother, that helps Griselda break the mold of femininity, for her commitment to her vow deeply disturbs Walter, making him realize that she is indeed strong and the only one that could match him in power. The Wife of Bath also breaks the mold on femininity by centralizing the power of women: they have the power to either to destroy or to save, and they have the right to speak for the