Although Geoffrey Chaucer has sometimes been called a sexist writer, whose image of the world is patriarchal and demeaning to women, such accusation is far from being valid. For instance, in the Knight’s Tale, what we are presented with is, in fact, a subversion of other sexist literature. Rather than just providing a conventional romance in this tale, what Chaucer does is have his Knight tell a tale about typical male figures being made to look ludicrous. In fact, Palomon and Arcite are revealed as fools, while the object of their love, Emelye, is revealed to be wiser. Therefore, we can look at this tale as a pro-feminist statement made well before its time.
The two male lovers in the Knight’s Tale make a number of conventional remarks about…show more content… Chaucer appears to know how silly it is of two men fighting over a woman without allowing her have an opinion in that matter, and he marks this explicitly in the speech of Theseus. The struggles of Arcite and Palamon are remarked when stated, “But this is yet the biggest joke of all, that she for whom they passionately vie can give them thanks about as much as I / she knew no more about this whole affair than knew, by God, a cuckoo or a hare!” (Chaucer, 1806-1810) Chaucer is mindful of the irrationality of patriarchal convention, and exposes this irrationality through this speech. Another example of his discouragement process occurs in the succeeding speech by Emelye, who asks to be spared from the difficulties of romantic life, “You've seen, chaste goddess, one desire in me: I long to be a maiden all my life, Not ever to be lover or a wife. You know that I'm yet of your company a maiden who's in love with venery, one who desires to walk the woods so wild and not be someone's wife and be with child or have to know the company of man” (Chaucer, 2304-2311). Emelye states her maidenhood like any romantic heroine, but in the quote she wishes to be a maiden not for motives of purity before marriage, but for the reason that she is fed up upon men. Emelye and Chaucer see through conventions that men have established criticizing those conventions harshly.
What Chaucer achieves in The Knight’s Tale, is a feminist vision of love hidden beneath an apparent and patriarchal story. This fact is apprehended by critics, if merely dimly. What the relationship demonstrates, is the irrationality of a romantic love, at least as it has existed in literature, as well as, the vital and inconsistent neglect of woman upon which romances are
