British Literature Women Of Long Ago Essay

, Research Paper

The star football player was about to be forced off the team because of poor academic grades. In desperation, the coach approached the Dean of the college and swore on his honor that he would give the lad a final exam in one of his subjects, and if the boy didn t pass he would take him from the team immediately.

The night before the big game the coach met with the boy to test him.

What, asked the coach, is the name of the first recorded piece of British Literature.

Coach, replied the boy, I don t have the slightest idea.

That s right! exclaimed the coach, You don t! Okay, you re in the starting line-up tomorrow!

This could be my story. I play sports-any sport-all sports-football, basketball, baseball you name it. The thought of my enjoying British Literature seems hard for even me to believe.

When faced with this assignment, I found myself in a slight panic. However, much to my surprise, it wasn t all that bad.

In going over the choices, I knew I had to choose to write about women, and their roles in these tales. The fact that they were involved in sex, deceit, and adultery had nothing to do with my decision. And as Oscar Wilde said, The world is packed with good and evil women. To know them is a middle class education. I m certainly a believer in that philosophy! After all, that s why I m in school.

In beginning to compare and contrast the role of women the The Wife of Bath s Tale, by Geoffrey Chaucer, The Second Shepherd s Play, by Wakefield Master, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by Sir Gawain, one needs to look closely at the stories.

The Wife of Bath s , tale is a brief Arthurian romance incorporating the widespread theme of the loathly lady. It is the story of a woman magically transformed into an ugly shape who can be restored to her former state only be some specific action.

It also embodies some surprising traces of the courtly tradition, along with The Second Shepherd s Play, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. All three tales seem to illustrate the transforming power of love for their men. Although they were are different they all showed the effect of their love. That the true lover cannot be corrupted by avarice; love makes an ugly and rude person shine with all beauty. They know how to endow with nobility even one of humble birth. They can even lend humility to the proud. Oh, what a marvelous thing love is which makes a man shine with so many virtues and which teaches everyone to abound in good customs.

You see briefly in the story The Wife of Bath s Tale that it deals with a lusty bachelor of the king s court who raped a young maiden. He was taken and condemned to die (such was the custom then) but the king, in deference to Queen Guenevere s pleas, allowed the ladies to judge him. They tell him he can save his life only if a year and a day later he can tell them what it is that women most desire. He wanders long without finding the answer; he is about to return disconsolate when he comes upon an old and remarkably ugly woman. She says that if he swore to do whatever she will next ask him, she will tell him the answer. He agrees and returns with answer: women most desire to have sovereignty over their husbands. Guenevere and her ladies are amazed; they grant him his life. The old woman than makes her demand: that he marry her. She will accept no less. On they re wedding night; he turns away from her. She asks him what is the matter. He answers that she is old and ugly and lowborn. The old woman demonstrated to him that none of these matter especially noble birth, since true gentilesse depends on deeds rather than birth. She offers him the choice: he can have her old and ugly and faithful or young, beautiful, and possibly unchaste. He tells her to choose; he grants her the sovereignty. When he does so she turns into a beautiful maiden, and they live thereafter in perfect joy.

That she so fair was and so yong therto,

For joye he hente hire in his arms two;

His herte bathed in a bath of blisse;

A thousand time arewe he gan hire kisse (Chaucer 356) Even under the rule of King Arthur and his chivalrous knights, women were at the mercy of men by having the knight rape a young maid. Immediately though, the women begin to weave in their philosophy. One in particular achieves all she wants through her shrewish behavior. She shows the queen that she can get the king to leave the knight s life in her hands. Further, the task given the knight by the queen, to find out What thing it is that women most desiren.

And if that she be foul, thou saist that she

Coveiteth every man that she may see;

For as a spaniel she wol on him lepe,

Til that she finde som man hire to chepe (Chaucer 336) In conceding this point of choice and giving the womanpower, the wife shows how the knight gains both choices and both become happy together.

For by my trouthe, I wol be to you bothe

This is to sayn, ye bothe fair and good

And she obeyed him in every thing (Chaucer 356)

In The Second Shepherds Play, the story begins with three shepherds (Coll, Gib, and Daw) in a field complaining about the cold, taxes, and the high-handed treatment they got from the gentry. These are evils that are close to home for the shepherds on the Yorkshire moors. Eventually the main c

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