A paper which introduces and discusses the status of women in medieval times, as seen through the writings of Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
By examining the characters and lives of the women in two of Geoffrey Chaucer’s stories – “Prioress” and “The Wife of Bath” – in Canterbury Tales, the author of this paper shows the status of women in medieval times. The author shows that women during Chaucer’s time faced many obstacles; however, the women rose to the challenge, and created meaningful, creative lives.
The Prioress’ tale is representative of women of the time in that the mother is strong enough to search high and low for her son, but when she finds him and takes him to the church, she swoons, a common thing for the weaker sex in medieval times. Women often fainted when faced with any kind of disaster or calamity. Then, it is the men (the abbots), who take the child, and learn the nature of his salvation. In fact, the prioress does not mention the mother again in the poem, but Jesus’ mother on high` is mentioned as the cause of this miracle.`