Essay Database

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales in the late 1400s. He came up with the idea of a pilgrimage to Canterbury in which each character attempts to tell the best story. In that setting Chaucer cleverly reveals a particular social condition of England during the time. In this period, the status, role, and attitudes towards women were clearly different from that of today. Two tales in Chaucer’s collection specifically address this subject: the Miller’…

…of time when the overall outlook on women was different from today, Chaucer depicts the life of women as one filled with over-protection by the husband or father, extensive chores solely on the house, and self-immortality. Alison, the Miller’s wife and Molly all show or deal with these characteristics of medieval women. Through their actions, The Canterbury Tales holds a clear view of one particular social condition of the time, the depravity of women.