Comparing Canterbury Tales, Burgermeisters Daughter and the Writings o

Image of Women in Canterbury Tales, Burgermeisters Daughter and the Writings of Thomas doubting Thomas What was the predominant image of women and womens crop in medieval smart set? A rather sexist or misogynistic view--by twentieth century standards of course--was prevalent among learned clerics. The writings of the theologian Thomas Aquinas typify this view. But although the religious of Europes abbeys and universities dominate the written record of the period, Thomistic sexism was non the only view of womens proper role. In his Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer portrays women in a much much positive way, characterizing them as somewhat empowered. Actual historical events, such as the scandal and subsequent litigation revolving around Anna Buschler which Steven Ozment details in The Burgermeisters Daughter, suggest something of a compromise between these devil literary extremes. While it is true that life was no utopia for medieval women, neither was life universally horrib le or society thoroughly misogynistic. The Churchs views on women had deep scriptural roots. In his letter to Timothy, the apostle Paul writes Let a woman learn in silence with all submissiveness (1 Tim. 211). This view rests on the story of Eves creation as a helper--not an equal--to man from the rib of Adam in Genesis. It also condemns Eve, and by association all women, for allowing the snake to trick her into Original Sin. In Summa Theologica, Aquinas extends Pauls argument for female inferiority even farther As regards the individual nature, woman is defective and misbegotten, for the active displume in the male seed tends to the production of a perfect likeness in the masculine sex while the production of woman comes from defect i... ...quinas did not by themselves represent the views of society at large--although society by no means completely ignored them. Aquinas and Chaucers Wife of Bath represent two extreme views of medieval women, while the real nature of womens co ndition in the period lay somewhere in the middle. Any 20th century ideas of wholesale female oppression in the middle ages are relativist myths which serve to glamorize the modern period rather than describe historical reality. Endnotes 1 By the eleventh century, roughly two centuries before Aquinas, even parish priests had become generally celibate, suggesting the widespread adoption of this practice among clergy by the 13th century (Western Heritage, 190). 2 Interestingly, the knights crime is rape, a crime against women. His quick punishment for the rape further highlights some security enjoyed by medieval women.