The Responsibility Of Women In Miller's Tale

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In the beginning of humanity, people lived in small hunter-gatherer societies. In these societies, men and women were both responsible for the society’s food supply, which resulted in the genders being treated equally (Bowdler 170). Then societies became more sedentary and men began to take full responsibility for the food supply, which caused women to not be needed in many roles. In the late Fourteenth Century, most people expected women to fill one of only two roles: a faultless nun or submissive wife (Vaněčková 15). Many people in this time period believed that women could not fully fill even those roles because they thought women were sinful. The Catholic Church used the story of Adam and Eve to reveal the wicked and tempting nature of …show more content…
This is shown through the unfaithfulness of May in “The Merchant’s Tale” and Alisoun in “The Miller’s Tale.” May is shown to be especially immoral because her husband is a sympathetic character because of his unrealistic view of marriage and naivety. In the beginning of this tale, January “felt a terrible rush . . . to become a married man” (Chaucer 262) and believes that marriage is “joyful” and “holy” (265). Throughout the story, January maintains his unrealistically good view of marriage and his wife, May. May cheats on January with Damyen, and blames it on Damyen. January believes her and was then “delighted” and “was kissing her and hugging over and over” (291). This displays January’s gullibility. Most people believe that ignorant people are innocent and that others should not take advantage of them. May’s unfaithfulness does just that, so people have more sympathy for January and hatred for May. This reflects the fact that people in Chaucer’s time viewed women as “morally feeble” and believed that they “could not be trusted” (Gestsdóttir 5). In summary, Geoffrey Chaucer reflects the common view of women as immoral by showing that May heartlessly cheated on her naïve …show more content…
Pértelóte tells Chaunticleer not to heed the warning given to him in his dream because dreams are “worthless” and “born from stuffing your belly” (Chaucer 461). Chaunticleer takes his wife’s advice and does not take the dream “seriously enough” (“Language Redeemed” 91). Chaunticleer ends up regretting this decision because he is almost eaten by a fox due to his own recklessness, which his dream warned him of. The Nun’s Priest comments on this by saying, “Women’s advice is very often fatal” (Chaucer 470). He then goes on to explain that “Women’s advice brought us original woe” because Adam was kicked out of the Garden of Eden due to his wife’s advice (470). This shows that women are temptresses who lead men down bad paths. Therefore, they are immoral. Chaucer reflects his society’s opinion that women are immoral since they cause men to make fatal errors in The Canterbury Tales through the characters of Alisoun, who’s bad advice causes her husband to be humiliated, and Pértelóte, who’s advice almost causes her husband’s
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