Geoffrey Chaucer s The Canterbury Tales - 1781 Words

During the Medieval and Renaissance Era, women were never the dominant partner in a relationship and were wholly looked down upon. During these women s lifetimes, sovereignty was sought after but never fully achieved. Women were looked at as a way to please the man and someone to carry his child when time came. In modern time, the extremist who don t support equality among women and men are known as misogynists or anti-feminists. On the side of the spectrum, those who do support equality are known as feminists. Geoffrey Chaucer, who is by some considered a proto-feminist writer, is one of the few writers of this time to go against the crowd and speak up for what women wanted. However, because of strict laws in this time, outwardly going†¦show more content†¦Some critics see her stance and ideals as anti-feminist because of her deceitful way of getting the power and pleasure she wants over her husband, portraying the un-idealistic side of the Renaissance women. Women of this time were expected to stay in their lane and conform to the standards of their husbands and the law. Through her physiognomy and linguistics, the Wife of Bath is accurately shown as a confident woman who favors power. During the pilgrimage, Allyson is described as a striking woman with a reddish-tint to her face. She wore stockings of scarlet reed (Chaucer line 456) and high-quality clothing she wove herself. The Renaissance time period only allowed the highest ranked nobility to wear the color red (Daily Life in the Elizabethan Era). Even though Chaucer wants to show her as a noble woman, he uses the color red symbolic to seduction, lust, and passionate love. She has a gap in her teeth which was lusted after during this time, and was an old-pro when it came to love and romance stories. Allyson also mentions she has been married to five different men since she was twelve, but the marriage she is in now is not for wealth but for love. During the Middle Ages, a marriage was highly based off wealth and gaining higher social standing rather than the true meaning of marriage, love. Allys on continues to be the antithesis of women during this time by being shameless about her sexual appetite and how she twists