Chaucer's Handling of a Medieval Feminist Hierarchy

Author / Editor
Lee, B. S.

Title
Chaucer's Handling of a Medieval Feminist Hierarchy

Published
UNISA English Studies 24:1 (1986): 1-6.

Description
Augustine and Jerome influenced the medieval Church's use of hierarchy to evaluate a woman's spiritual standing. Chaucer, however, refuses to be bound by the limitations of theological stereotypes. He shows that women often neither choose nor get what the stereotype predicts for them, especially with the widow Alison, Griselda, and the virgin Emelye.

Chaucer Subjects
Canterbury Tales--General.