Date of Award
8-2007
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A.
Degree Program
English
Department
English
Major Professor
Sturges, Robert; Marti, Kevin
Second Advisor
Shenk, Robert
Abstract
In the Middle Ages, marriage represented a shift in the balance of power for both men and women. Struggling to define what constitutes the ideal marriage in medieval society, the marriage group of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales attempts to reconcile the ongoing battle for sovereignty between husband and wife. Existing hierarchies restricted women; therefore, marriage fittingly presented more obstacles for women. Chaucer creates the dynamic personalities of the Wife of Bath, the Clerk and the Merchant to debate marriage intelligently while citing their experiences within marriage in their prologues. The rhetorical device of ethos plays a significant role for the pilgrims. By first establishing their authority, each pilgrim sets out to provide his or her audience with a tale of marriage that is most correct. Chaucer's work as a social commentary becomes rhetorically complex with varying levels of ethos between Chaucer the author, his tale tellers and their characters.
Recommended Citation
Marcotte, Andrea, "Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales: Rhetoric and Gender in Marriage" (2007). University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations. 591.
https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/591
Included in
English Language and Literature Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons
Rights
The University of New Orleans and its agents retain the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible this dissertation or thesis in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. The author retains all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis or dissertation.