Sexuality In Medieval Literature
Rules of medieval society clearly depict that it is a man’s world, but medieval literature seems to reverse this notion. In medieval text, fiction or non-fiction, the reader can expect the foundations of the characteristics of the main character to be the same. You can expect him to be noble along with a few of his own personality traits, but the character of the woman cannot be predicted. Sexuality in medieval literature restricts the male character, but allows the female character the freedom that is not recognized in real medieval society. In other words, people don’t seem to give the female enough credit because it is the different aspects of sexuality of the female that makes the world go around, while men are the silent characters. In medieval society, the man is the dominant figure, but medieval literature portrays women as having different and versatile roles, which allows them to be the center of the conflict or plot, while the men have limited roles set in stone making them merely puppets in a woman’s world. Sexuality is not only about the sexual nature of both men and women, but it is also about the roles of men and women according to society. A plain and simple way to pu
On the other hand, there is the male character in medieval literature. Unlike his versatile and forever changing female counterpart, he is the same at all times in most medieval literature. Of course, he is indeed boring. Besides his specific character flaw and his specific “supernatural specialty”, he is just simply the same. He is so common that he can be taken out of any medieval literature text and replace another male character in an entirely different story. The plot will stay the same because he will be chivalrous, heroic, humble, but also slightly prideful, and so secure in his sexuality that he has a couple of feminine moments, and he is extremely loyal. There are only a few medieval male characters that will be excluded from this list, but they are the exception. Again, in “The Chevalier Who Made Cunts Talk” the women are representative of Middle Age ideas about women and sex. Two of the three naked women grant the Chevalier sexual gifts. They do not, as one might expect, give him practical gifts like money or long life, but instead they assume that their sexual gifts are the greatest they could give. The Chevalier is dumbstruck and angry at first by their gifts, but later realizes that they are beneficial. When he arrives at court, he discovers he can extract information from talkative cunts, and also that he can make money for himself by wagering on his ability to do this. When the countess wagers with him about this, she again demonstrates the imaginativeness of women by stuffing her vagina with cotton to render it unable to speak. The countess does, however, lose the bet as the Chevalier speaks to her of the time was that women are dry and need sex and the moisture of a man to replenish them. In other fabliaux such as “Les Quatre Sohais Saint-Martin” the Even though Lady Hateful did learn her lesson after having her husband beat her, she still was the controlling, but obviously not dominant, figure in this story-line. It was her extreme personality that caused her husband to have a reaction. It was Lady Hateful’s disregard for her sexuality or conventional female role that caused Sir Hate to be riled up. Her actions are the center of the story and Lady Hateful had enough control of her husband that she knew how to push his buttons and make him mad. She controlled his mind will and emotions. Her sexuality took over his soul. She probably wanted Sir Hate to stop being such a saint anyway and beat her to show her who was the boss and who wore the pants in the relationship. No matter what Lady Hateful’s motives were, she still accomplished to have control over her husband and cause him to react to her actions.
Some topics in this essay:
Lady Hateful”,
Sexuality Medieval,
Lady Hateful,
Prologue Tale”,
Lady Hateful’s,
Middle Age,
Sohais Saint-Martin”,
Cunts Talk”,
Middle Ages,
Green Knight”,
medieval literature,
lady hateful,
male character,
cunts talk”,
chevalier cunts,
“the chevalier,
chevalier cunts talk”,
“the chevalier cunts,
medieval society,
female character,
“sir hate lady,
lady hateful”,
miller’s prologue tale”,
lady hateful’s,
“the miller’s prologue,
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Approximate Word count = 2997
Approximate Pages = 12 (250 words per page double spaced)
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