One Reason For Women To Fight

The fight for gender equality has been a laborious tasks throughout the centuries. In 1392, Geoffrey Chaucer wrote, “The Canterbury Tales”, an extremely progressive and enlightening collection of twenty-four tales that not only expose the societal differences amongst people, it also discloses the general opinion and perspective of men about women. These tales revel the mountainous task of overcoming male superiority that women have to constantly fight against throughout the centuries. To most of the male character throughout the tales, females were considered the inferior subjects to male authority. They believe that women are the weaker sex, of less importance, intellectually inferior, emotionally unstable, and morally feeble. On the oppositions, they can be viewed as wicked, Satanic, and immoral creatures who only base their decisions on sexual pleasure. One character, the Merchant, exemplifies a prevalent idea of the time period: women are the property of men and therefore should be submissive, agreeable, and subservient to the men. Women’s opinions and thoughts do not matter to men, only their age and outwardly appearance. The Merchant’s Tale provides the evidence that women objectification was a common and supported practice. The idea of an older man possessing a younger wife for the purpose of displaying her as great property was a prevailing habit within these tales and the societal norms of the 14th century. The language of property displayed in The Merchant’s Tale demonstrates how men of this time period do not distinguish their wife from their other possessions.

Chaucer creates a clear connection between the Merchant’s social status and the principle of women being under the ownership of men. As a merchant, this unnamed character revolves his livelihood and earnings around the bargaining and selling of goods. This allows him to appear to rise above the status of the other middle class commoners. Being viewed as higher class is a desire so deeply ingrained into the Merchant that within his tale the protagonist is a noble knight, the highest a person a person can rise socially without being royal. The knight bargains for a beautiful and young wife, owns a gorgeous house, and has immaculate and cherished private gardens: evidence of his wealth and societal class. Appearances and status are incredibly important to the Merchant; he presents himself as one of the wealthier characters on this pilgrimage, with “a high-saddled horse”, “a many-coloured dress”, “a Flanders beaver hat”, and “Boots with expensive clasps” (Chaucer 10). These clear and vivid details Chaucer deems to characterize the Merchant during the Prologue gives highlight to his views on women. He enjoys displaying and flaunting his precious valuables to others whom do not appears to be as high of a social status as him. As with his exquisite and fashionable clothing, the Merchant has the expectation of everything that he owns to reach his high standards. This standard does not disclude wives, as they were viewed as the property of their husbands. The ideal wife is compliant, youthful, soft spoken, and alluring; a wife is an object to be examined and evaluated as well as servant to make the husband’s life leisurely. This servitude includes fulfilling his physical and emotional needs, regardless of how demanding they may be. The more young and beautiful the wife, the more prideful and boastful the husband is of his property. Since women were viewed as objects to please men, it is fitting that the Merchant, who sells objects, is the character to really develop this dominating male viewpoint within the tales. The Merchant introduced the idea that a wife is to be bargained for when he states, “They then, by dint of astute and discreet / Bargaining, ordered so that May / (Such was her name) should marry January” (Chaucer 256). Males will negotiate to obtain a wife, treating them as a thing to purchase. A wife who follows the regulations that society has deemed fitting for them is considered the flawless piece of property that a husband will be proud of to have in his collection.

Within the tale, all of the thoughts of the noble knight January are revealed. He discloses that he believes that a budding and beautiful woman is “an excellent thing, / Especially when a man is old and grey; Then she’s the best part of his property” (Chaucer 245). These simplistic but powerful thoughts demonstrate how easily a wife could be claimed in the 14th century. There is no true love to be found within this marriage, it is only lust and the idea of a blissful paradise that has January wanting to become a husband. In addition, January confesses how jealous he feels when he can no longer view his beautiful wife due to his blindness, and therefore keeps her caged and miserable. There is a consistent pattern of the male’s opinions and thoughts being heard, while the female’s is silent. May, the wife, has no freedom or independence from her jealous husband who insists on constantly holding her hand to ensure her loyalty. Not only does she lack physical freedom from her husband, the Merchant does not even deem her important enough to have the freedom to voice her true thoughts and opinions. Within the tales, the Merchant states, “God knows what lovely May thought in her heart” (Chaucer 260) and “So, willy-nilly, she had to obey. / But, lest the prudish should be vexed with me, / Just what they did, I do not dare to tell, / Or whether she thought it was paradise or hell” (Chaucer 262, 263). The Merchant does not even grant the wife, whom is viewed just as an object of property, the opportunity to disclose her own feelings to the readers. She was forced to obey the wants of her husband without being afforded a thought for herself. It will always remain a mystery what May actually thought of having to be forced to become the wife of old January. Under the ownership of the husband, the wife is not given a voice to use, therefore she cannot share her opinions and thoughts. The husband’s thoughts, beliefs, and opinions are so dominating that the wife is forced to stay quiet. This silence is a comparable trait to that of an inanimate statue in which both wives and property are only to be seen and not heard, valuable to the status of a man but not truly appreciated or considered. Overall, the fact that the Merchant makes the executive decision to not share May’s thoughts with the reader demonstrates how unimportant and objectified women were during this time period.

The Merchant’s Tale allows today’s society to view in detail how men negatively viewed women of their time period. Females were thought of as meek, submissive, intellectually inferior, and overall the weaker sex, therefore making them the perfect possession for males. The Merchant demonstrates clearly how women are used to further a male’s societal status by using the language of property and by omitting the thoughts of the knight’s wife. Wives are to be bargained for by men while having no actual voice for themselves. This tale’s overarching idea that women are under the ownership of men justifies why the fight for gender equality is so paramount and difficult to achieve, as some male authoritative societies still believe in this practice.