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

Sexuality in The wife of Bath and the PardonerIn Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales, an eclectic mix of people gathers together at Tabard Inn to mother a pilgrimage to Canterbury. In the General Prologue, the readers ar introduced to each of these characters. Among the pilgrims are the provocative Wife of Bath and the meek Pardoner. These twain characters both plant grammatical gender, in very different ways. Chaucer uses the Wife and the Pardoner to examine sexuality in the medieval period.The Middle Ages were a time of expanding and experimenting sexually for the people. ghostlike figures who had taken vows of celibacy had children, whatevertimes with more than one woman. Even some popes of the time had illicit affairs. However, adultery was often condoned, especially in horse cavalrys, because the heroism Code expected of them certain actionsAn act of infidelity was no disgrace, ever provided that one preserved the form of polite societyAny knight who contented himse lf with wedding a virgin before himself having grown safe in adultery and carried off several trophies of the chase was unworthy of his spurs. adultery was a social diversion for the upper classes. A knight had to befuddle a lady whom he worshipedChurch and state tolerated the adulterous kindredIt was the thing to choose a celestial patroness(1) At the aforementioned(prenominal) time, women were repressed in their sexual feelings and were subject to their husbands demands. If an widowed woman had sexual relations, she would be dishonored, thrown into exile or all the same killed. Horrible experiments sought often to find ways of getting rid of any pleasure 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 apply controversies to create character. He wanted his characters to teach the readers something new about life. The Wife of Bath and the Pardoner demonstr ate Chaucers way of creating characters based on the sexuality of the medieval period.WORKS CITED(1)Life in the Middle Ages Appearance vs. Reality. side of meat Department St. Johns College High School. stjohns-chs.org. (2) Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales edited by M.H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of face Literature. (New York W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001). All future 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.