Portrayal of Women in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales: A Study of Gendered Narratologies in The Clerk’s Tale Vs. The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale

Abstract

This study compares Chaucer’s presentation of female characters in two of The Canterbury Tales: The Clerk’s Tale and The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale. Through a close reading of The Clerk’s Tale, this paper discusses how Chaucer represents Griselda as an example of the mainstream male attitudes to women in Chaucer’s time. Thereafter, the study discusses how representation of female characters from the male perspective distorts the real persona of women: neither idealized nor wicked creatures as projected by the dominant male thought of that time. Further, this study analyses in detail Chaucer’s representation of women in The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, focusing on the character of Alison, who is represented as an example of the woman who goes beyond the stereotypical images that the male narrators created about women in Chaucer’s other tales.