Feminist Response

Many believe Chaucer was a chauvinist due to the way he chose to portray Emily and other women in The Knights Tale. However, if one were to look at his writings from a historical perspective, they'd find that his portrayal of women merely mimicked the writings and customs of the time period in which The Knight's Tale takes place. The story takes place in Athens, in which women were expected to be controlled by men all their lives. It was an Athenian custom that women were to serve their father and brothers before they were married and to serve their husbands during their marriage and in the afterlife. If a woman was born to an important family, they were to be betrothed by an early age or else the family would be dishonored. Despite being related to royalty(even loosely related), Emily was not swiftly sold to the highest bidder. In fact, Theseus showed no intention of betrothing Emily until suitors actually came to him. If anything, Chaucer's portrayal of Emily is progressive. He showed that women could actually be free-thinkers despite having to live their lives as servants. Chaucer may have even inserted Emily's proclamations of woe as a way to show why such customs are immoral. The Knight's Tale was written before any Women's Rights movements had surfaced. It is only natural that women take a subservient role in Chaucer's writings, as that was the custom of the time. Women simply did not take on a dominant role in the writing of those times because they were not expected to in real life, and thus never did. One must also note that Palamon, who prayed to Venus, was the one to marry Emily. This is significant because Venus was a goddess with feminine attributes. Arcite, on the other hand, prays to Mars, a god with masculine attributes, and fails to achieve his ultimate goal. Thus, Chaucer showed the strengh of feminine qualities over masculine qualities.