ESSAY PLAN: Does The Merchant’s Tale reinforce medieval assumptions about women?
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Course
Drama and poetry pre-1900 (H472)
Institution
OCR
Book
The Canterbury Tales
Detailed plan (introduction and 3x points for 5-6 paragraphs) linking quotations and historical context in response to the theme of women in TMT, responding to the quotation “Lo, whiche sleightes and subtilitees/ In wommen been.".
ESSAY TITLE: “Lo, whiche sleightes and subtilitees/ In wommen
been.’ Does The Merchant’s Tale reinforce medieval assumptions
about women?
PLANNING AND RESEARCH
Introduction Define key terms from the question
● Medieval assumptions; informed by… early patristic writers (St Jerome, an early
Christian writer who translated the Bible, and was heavily influenced by the
antifeminist text by Theophrastus -‘The Golden Book of Marriage’) notably the Story
of Adam and Eve (the Fall) in the Book of Genesis.
● Galen; third century writer whose narrative aligned with that of influential Medieval
writers and scholars- many views on women were informed by Galen’s beliefs, despite
him believing that women were the physical manifestations of lust.
● Aristotle’s idea of women as ‘deformed men’
[ include ideas of these theories aiding the patriarchy at the time- however also society
operating on an economic level, because the least affected women were of higher class by birth
]
Main Point 1 AGREEING WITH THE STATEMENT (usually linked to the start of the text)–
1-2 paragraphs i.e T he Merchant’s Tale does seem to reinforce prevailing assumptions about
women, insisting that wives are “feends” to their husbands. Behind the façade,
women are schemers, orchestrating their affairs?
Topic sentence:
The Merchant’s key female characters, May and Proserpina, are fundamentally
portrayed as duplicitous and manipulative, causing or exacerbating the suffering of
men for their own -selfish- gain.
QUOTES
+ “suffisant answere”, “shulle hemself excuse” {Proserpina aiding deceit}
“she bigan to wepe”, ‘I am a gentil womman and no wenche” {May lying}
“he that misconceyveth, he misdemeth” {May chiding men}
“there may ful many a sighte yow bigile”, “ne seen it parfitly” {outrageous lies}
“ye men shul be as lewed as gees” {Proserpina, defending women against men}
“wepe, and swere, and chide subtilly”, “visage it hardily” {manipulation}
“untrouthe and brotilnesse”, “the tresons whiche that women doon to man”
Context to include
Adam and Eve; Eve’s temptation led to the Fall; lust?
‘Fragility’ of women; susceptibility to lust, need for protection by men...
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