XII Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2020

A social history of England in the 14th century is described in the collection of 24 stories – “The Canterbury Tales” of Jeffrey Chaucer, an outstanding English writer and poet of the 14th century.

A theme of family relationships is reflected in almost all the stories of “The Canterbury Tales”. A family played a very important role in a medieval man’s life. The term “love” is mentioned in the text about 170 times, “husband” – about 90 times, “wife” – about 130 times, “spouse” – 115 times.

Chaucer describes different types of families:

a family with a complete subordination of a woman to a man, most often a husband is much older and has higher social status and financial position than his wife (this type is most clearly represented in the Merchant’s Tale, the Miller’s Tale and the Clerk’s Tale);

2) an ideal family based on mutual trust and equality of spouses (the Franklin’s Tale);

3) a family with a woman’s dominance (the Wife of Bath's Tale).

Peasant families (with the exception of miller's family) are not described in “The Canterbury Tales”. Chaucer makes the main emphasis on noble, merchant and craft families (peasant families are represented only in the Reeve’s Tale and the Clerk’s Tale).

Chaucer focused on the relationship of spouses in the family, while the relationships of parents and children are weakly represented.

Three main family patterns can be distinguished:

1) a traditional family pattern with a subordination of women to men;

2) a non-traditional family pattern - a woman plays a central role in family life;

3) an egalitarian family pattern - mutual respect and equality of spouses.

Chaucer reflected the main trends of family and marriage relations of Britain in the middle of the fourteenth century: ridiculing a simpleton man, exposing vices of a woman, prejudice to marriage, and traditional views on marriage.

In the Middle Ages the concept of marriage, developed by the church, was the following: marriage is a special form of earthly love recognized by the church; through the ceremony of marriage the church blesses marriage and a married couple to have children, to observe chastity and fidelity; spouses should suppress their natural attraction to each other to such an extent that would exclude the possibility of loving each other more than they should love God. This concept of marriage belongs to Augustine. After studying the topic of love and marriage in medieval literature, Yuri Saprykin concluded that at the time of Chaucer in England, wife was perceived as an ambitious and envious woman enjoying luxury. This image was widely propagated by parish churches and in treatises.

In “The Canterbury Tales” marriage is represented as a husband’s domination over his wife and a single purpose of marriage is procreation. Parents should give their consent to weddings, engagements are made in childhood, and marriage is compared with the buying process. But if a product is carefully examined before its purchase, a bridegroom should see his bride as little as possible not to be bored with his future wife before wedding. A woman is perceived as a creature with evil principle. Together with a bride a man is believed to get infidelity and insidiousness, wastefulness and quarrelsomeness for life.

Numerous factual material on the topic of family relations makes it possible to analyze men and women’s position not only in the family, but also in the society.

A man played the main role in the English society of the 14th century. In most families that are described in “The Canterbury Tales”, a man has all the power in the family; he is the main earner and owner of all the family property. The most important for a man is precisely the economic role. The major areas of ​​a woman’s activity are housekeeping, caring for her husband and children. Most of Chaucer's heroines are good housewives and mothers.

The highest virtue for a woman in the 14th century remained chastity and loyalty to her spouse. Adultery, despite their frequency, was condemned. The highest ideal was loyalty and devotion to a husband.

The 14^th century was also characterized by changes in the position of women in the English society. Feminist tendencies were manifested: women began to claim their rights, opposed men, and wanted to achieve respect in society. However, these trends were fully manifested only in the city, where women were less enslaved by the power of customs and tradition. In a rural area complete domination of a man over a woman remained.

We have come to the following conclusions. “The Canterbury Tales” is an important source for analyzing the ethics of family relationships in different social classes of medieval England. A family played a vital role in the life of people. A traditional family pattern with a subordination of women to men prevailed.

List of references:

1) Chaucer D. Canterbury Tales. - M., 1973. – 527 p.

2) Chaucer D. Canterbury Tales. - M, 1996. – 832 p.