Compare the Ways in Which Chaucer and Duffy Convey the Ideas about Lust and Love

Chaucer’s ‘Wife of Bath’s Tale’ is a medieval text set in a patriarchal society in which women were treated in an unequal manner. In contrast to the social factors in medieval society, Chaucer’s story is dominated by women, making this a matriarchal story which presents themes of women‘s independence. This idea is accentuated due to the fact that the Wife of Bath narrates the story. The main character of the knight who reflects the personality of promiscuous males in the medieval period who were mostly lustful towards woman and the roles between men and women showed inequality. Conversely, Duffy’s poems are contemporary in contrast to Chaucer’s patriarchal influence in his story, there is more of a sense of equality as she is a modern feminist author which presents the genders in the poems ‘Adultery’ and ‘Valentine’ in a quite ambiguous nature. The reader is unable to understand if the narrative voice is a male or a female. As a result the gender of the narrator in ‘Adultery’ and ‘Valentine is ambiguous. In addition, due to the ambiguity her poems, primarily ‘Valentine’ as she compares love to an onion and does this by using imagery, symbolism and choice of lexis. Both Chaucer and Duffy present ideas about lust and love in their work. However, Chaucer presents the idea of love in a medieval fairy tale which is more idealistic as the story ends on a happy note. By contrast Duffy presents the idea of lust and love in a modern setting and conveys more painful and realistic aspects in the poems.
Firstly, The Wife of Baths Tale is matriarchal as some segments in the story is told from the Wife of Baths perspective with quotes such as ‘A man shal wynne us best with flaterye ‘. However the ending of the story contradicts the whole point the story was attempting to present, matriarchy as it is evident in lines ‘1242-1270’. The Old Wife submissiveness is evident as she says ‘This is to seyn, ye, bothe fair and good’, and the narration which further accentuates the submissive action: ‘And she obeyed hym in every thyng’. The ending to The Wife of Baths Tale in which a rapist is rewarded with a young beautiful wife, is confusing especially to an modern audience. The lack of justice in this ending is even surprising due to the fact that it is directed by a court of women; primarily the queen whom would think would take seriously the raping of another women. Earlier in the story she was dominant even to the point that it made the knight submissive. The ending as a result negated the development of characters primarily the knight as his character developed from a selfish and lustful individual to a more sympathetic character. However as soon as the old woman transforms to a young woman and he kisses her, the development of the knight is stripped away and reverts to the character we initially saw beginning who raped a women and ‘By verray force, he rafte hire maydenhed. This idea is reinforced as the quote ‘That might give his Pleasure to his love liking’ contains the abstract noun ‘pleasure’ to reflect the personality of the knight as an individual who is promiscuous. Moreover, reflecting the personality of the medieval target audience which were primarily males. The patriarchal and misogynistic influence is present as it fails to take rape seriously, despite the fact that the tale claims to be concerned with the desires of women’s and their motivations. In the story Chaucer presents love as a myth as the knight never loved the old women for her personality but instead lusted for her when she transformed to a young woman.
In contrast to Chaucer’s idealistic idea of love, Duffy introduces the poem which rejects the traditional symbols of love by using negations: ‘Not a red rose or a satin heart’, which also correlates with the line ’Not a cute card or kissogram’. Here, Duffy uses a single line sentence and alliteration to create a blunt and realistic tone. Duffy uses the extended metaphor of an onion to… The repetition of these techniques is used to represent both their ongoing love and the layers of the onion simultaneously. Duffy introduces alternative symbols of love, the onion. Duffy begins to give connections between the onion and love and similarly compares the shape and colour of the onion to the moon. It refers to the romantic connotations that the moon carries with phrases such as, ‘It promises light’ and ‘like the careful undressing of love’. Duffy compares her onion to a moon wrapped in brown paper. The brown paper implies the outer skin of the onion. The moon is known for its romantic setting and its" light" could connote a sense of ecstasy and happiness which could mean that true love provides a graceful time in your life. However, it is also more cynical about love as the narrator shows a strong sense of danger in the poem especially with the sentence ‘it will blind you in tears’, in this sentence the onion is compared to a lover and the way love often leaves us in tears. Duffy attempts to present love in a negative fashion as she presents love as a risk of being left heart-broken. This connection is also compared in the way an onion stings our eyes, the same way we may be stung by another person’s heartlessness. Alternatively, the sentence also refers to a line ‘Love is blind’ which shows when two people are in love they don't see one and others faults. Similarly this phrase is also parallel to Duffy’s other poem ‘Adultery’ with the quote ‘slicing of innocent onions scalds you to tears’. The lexical choice ‘innocent onions’ could represent the partner the adulterer has hurt and as a result conveys a sense of guilt the narrator is attempting to convey . This tells the reader that the adulterer feels remorse that the partner has suffered for the affair and changes the atmosphere in way where you sympathise with the narrator. The fact that both poems use an onion as a metaphor suggests that this intertextual reference supports my thesis that Duffy presents her idea of love as blunt, realistic and painful.
Compared to Valentine, Adultery focuses mainly on the idea of lust. During the course of the poem there are several lines which consists of allusions of sex and potentially adding another meaning to this cryptic poem and creating a double entendre. The line ‘You are naked under your clothes all day”, is a sexual connotation, which implies that the clothes are a disguise, and all day the character in a deceitful manner. Alternatively, the adjective ‘naked’ suggests the vulnerability of the narrator. In addition the adulterer is presented as someone drunk with the passion and danger of a relationship whose 'Hands’ can ‘Phone’, ‘Open the wine’. And ‘Wash themselves.' He or she can secretly communicate with the lover, intoxicate him or her and wash away traces of contact. The sexual encounters are presented as 'lethal, thrilling' emphasising the mixture of danger and excitement. Furthermore in the 4th Stanza, Duffy uses the victim’s voice to reveal some of the emotions involved with adultery. There is also the matter of whether the adulterer is male or female. This is also the case of Valentine as the audience is still unsure of the gender of the speaker as speaker or the recipient is addressed as ‘I’ or ‘You’. However, in Adultery the explicit lexical choice ‘bastard’ is traditionally an insult towards men, and it is likely that the character is male and the victim is female. Due to the fact that Duffy is a feminist poet it is implied that this poem may contain underlying themes of feminism.
Duffy further conveys the idea of lust in presenting this relationship as a sexual one. The rhythm and repetition of the sentence 'Do it do it do it', is an imperative which may imply a sexual euphemism of engaging in sexual activity. Moreover this line can be compared with other lines such as ‘more, more' (Stanza 3) and ‘again and again’ (Stanza 8). Duffy also uses oxymoron with the lexical choice ‘sweet darkness.’ The narrator is suggesting the adulterous acts being committed is ‘sweet’ as they believe it would give satisfaction. However, the ‘darkness’ is used to show the narrator’s conflicted feelings as they believe it can lead to unfortunate consequences. Alternatively, Duffy could be talking about the lovers meeting in the ‘darkness’, or using ‘darkness’ as a metaphor to figuratively hide their sins. The final stanza presents the adulterer being confronted. The repetition of particular choices of lexis: ‘Fuck’, and ‘You’ emphasise the manner in which shock displays itself with the use of short, minor sentences. The colloquialism is again used to give the line power, impact, and the ability to shock, as the word ‘Fuck’ is generally considered to a taboo word in the English language. It is shows that this is very emotional. Finally, the lexical choice ‘this is only an abstract noun' suggests that the adulterer cannot see the affair in a sexual way. This could refer directly to the word ‘Adultery’, an abstract noun. Duffy could be suggesting that Adultery may only be such a word but it can have upsetting consequences, as has been explored throughout the poem. Throughout this poem Duffy is building up atmosphere. She uses language and poetic devices to create a mood, and then changes the mood, thereby moving the story on. Duffy builds up atmosphere by using phrases such as ‘suck a lie with a hole on it’ and ‘hands can do many things’ which fills the poem with riddles and unclear comments and taunts the reader to believe that the words have a sexual meaning behind them.
The imagery in the first stanza is notable for the way it uses the image of 'what was unhurt as though through a bruise' effectively conveys the damage caused by betrayal. Perspective of the narrator presented with the use of the abstract noun 'Guilt' as 'a sick green tint.' This could refer to the new view possible through ‘dark glasses’ which is unnatural or distorted; 'sick' stresses what will unfold as a distasteful catalogue of betrayal, while 'green' connotes both jealousy and bitterness.
The Knight seen in the Wife of Bath’s Tale is the rapist knight who is not a very noble knight and doesn’t follow noble set of rules. This knight seems more realistic as opposed to the stereotypical ideal knight that is portrayed in media such as television and other fictional novels. The knight in "The Wife of Bath's Tale" doesn't make a very good first impression, and he's not a very good knight. Knights are supposed to protect women; instead, he rapes one. The description of the knight: ‘Ther is noon oother incubus but he, And he ne wol doon hem but dishonour,’ Gives a negative connotation especially the noun ‘incubus.’ An incubus is a demon in male form who, according to mythological and legendary traditions, lies upon sleepers, especially women, in order to engage in sexual activity with them and refers to the knight as an ‘incubus’. In effect this presents the knight as an antagonising and evil figure in the tale. Chaucer frequently refers the knight as a promiscuous individual throughout the tale. This idea is further accentuated as Chaucer addresses him as a ‘lusty bachelor ‘the adjective lusty is used to suggest that the knight has had frequent sexual encounters. In addition this shows his decisive, blunt and impulsive nature. The knight may not be very likable, and he may not be a very good knight, but he's teachable. By the end of the tale, he gives up his power to his wife completely and says, "I put me in your wise governance". After this statement, we want to believe he's transformed, and has matured in the course of the tale. The knight meant as a symbol of all men in a tale whose point seems to be that men need to be taught to listen to women's desires and yield sovereignty to them. The knight eventually learns his lesson, although it takes him a while. With him, then, the tale seems to be encouraging women not to give up hope on the men in their lives; they may make some mistakes, but they'll come around in the end.
Abdul Musa