Canterbury Tales Essay - Sexuality in The Wife of Bath and the Pardoner

Sexuality in The married woman of Bath and the pardonerIn Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales, an eclectic liquefy of people gathers together at Tabard Inn to begin a trip to Canterbury. In the General Prologue, the readers are introduced to each of these characters. Among the pilgrims are the provocative Wife of Bath and the meek Pardoner. These two characters both demonstrate internality, in real different ways. Chaucer uses the Wife and the Pardoner to examine sexuality in the mediaeval period.The Middle Ages were a time of expanding and experimenting sexually for the people. Religious figures who had taken vows of virtue had children, sometimes with more than one woman. Even some popes of the time had unlawful affairs. However, criminal conversation was often condoned, especially in knights, because the Chivalry Code evaluate of them certain actionsAn act of infidelity was no disgrace, always provided that one carry on the form of polite societyAny knight who conten ted himself with spousals a virgin before himself having grown practiced in adultery and carried off several trophies of the chase was unworthy of his spurs. Adultery was a loving diversion for the upper classes. A knight had to have a gentlewoman whom he worshipedChurch and state tolerated the adulterous relationshipIt was the thing to adopt a celestial patroness(1) At the same time, women were repressed in their sexual feelings and were subject to their husbands demands. If an unmarried woman had sexual relations, she would be dishonored, thrown into exile or even killed. Horrible experiments seek often to find ways of getting rid of any amusement women would experience during intercourse.People in the Middle Ages had two distinct views on sexuality at that... ...though he was condemned by his sexuality.Chaucer used controversies to create character. He wanted his characters to teach the readers something new about life. The Wife of Bath and the Pardoner demonstrate Chaucer s way of creating characters based on the sexuality of the medieval period.WORKS CITED(1)Life in the Middle Ages Appearance vs. Reality. English Department St. bums College High School. stjohns-chs.org. (2) Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales edited by M.H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. (New York W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001). All forthcoming references will come from this text.(3) Taken from notes in lectures by Dr. Raymond Nighan.(4) Monica E. McAlpine. The Pardoners Homosexuality and How It Matters. www.courses.fas.harvard.edu/laa14/sourcebook/mac-pard.htm. (5) E. McAlpine.(6) E. McAlpine.