If anyone were asked to name the epitome of medieval English literature, it is very likely that the answer would be Geoffrey Chaucer. In Indeed, this world-renowned poet played an important role in the development of the English language thanks to his masterpiece The Canterbury Tales, among many others. However, rarely does a genius come alone with his greatest ideas and is it actually common that famous authors draw their literary works on the creations of other writers, it has been proven that he did it for example on Boccaccio or Boethius, but the work that interests us here is the lai of “Lanval” which was. written by Marie de France in the late 12th century, one can note a non-negligible number of similarities between this story and Chaucer's “The Wife of Bath's Tale,” which may lead one to wonder whether Chaucer's aim was to give a second one. vented to Marie de Lai French The Oxford Dictionary defines a revival as a “new production of an old play or similar work” and seems to preliminarily correspond to what “The Wife of Bath's Tale” is in relation to “Lanval” . Knowing that Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales two centuries after the publication of the lais of Mary of France, “Lanval” can therefore be considered “old enough” to fit this definition. The aspect of "new production" is more difficult to deal with. Therefore, I would like to suggest that “The Wife of Bath's Tale” can indeed be designated as a revival or new production of “Lanval” because both stories resemble each other overall in their content and, more importantly, because they have the same main purpose, which is empowering women. Therefore, after a brief introduction that will highlight the general similarities of the two works, this assumption will be demonstrated in the second and main part of this essay, showing that both authors aim to empower women. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Before you consider "The Wife of Bath's Tale" as a revival of "Lanval" thanks to their very goal of empowering female characters, it is necessary to point out the fact that the two stories are already practically identical in content. First of all, “The Wife of Bath's Tale”, as well as “Lanval”, are set in a fairy universe. So, they feature similar character types. The protagonists of both stories, in fact, are a knight and a fairy creature with magical powers. In each of them the reader also meets King Arthur and his wife, the queen. The plot lines are also very similar. The works of Chaucer and Marie de France both effectively tell the story of a knight who is put on trial and escapes certain death thanks to a fairy woman. Regarding the genre, Esther C. Quinn states that “Both are set in the time of King Arthur, draw on fairy love, and test romance. In Marie's lai the Fairy Mistress puts Lanval to the test. . . and in Chaucer's novel the nameless hero is tested by a series of nameless women” (Quinn 211). It is true that the two stories have some characteristics that make one think that they belong to a romantic genre, but the simple fact that it is not the knight who saves the damsel but the opposite makes them classify them in the same unusual category which could be defined as " unconventional Arthurian romance”. It is also interesting to note that both are not separate works but are part of a collection. In fact, “The Wife of the Bath Tale” belongs to the Canterbury Tales and “Lanval” is part of the Lais of Marie de France. Concentratingon narrative style, it is true that both include an intrusive narrator who cannot help but make observations throughout the story. In “Lanval,” for example, the narrator introduces the story with the following incipit: “I will tell you the story of another layman” (Marie de France 73). Other comments may stand out, such as “This knight whose story I tell you” (73), “I will not fail to tell you the truth” (74), “the value of which I cannot tell you” (74) or “nor can I I report more” (81). Likewise, Alisoun, the narrator of “The Wife of Bath's Tale,” also chimes in as she tells her story, as when she says “This was the old opinion, as I read; / I speak of many hundreds of years ago” (Chaucer III: 862-63), “But that tale is not worth a stele. / Pardee, we women can do nothing; / Witness about Myda: do you want to hear the story?" (III: 949-51), or “The rest of the tale if you will here, / Redeth Ovyde, and you can read it” (III: 981-82). It can therefore be assumed that both works are similar in their founding principles, which already tend to suggest that “The Wife of Bath's Tale” could possibly be considered a new production of “Lanval”. More than similar in their content and structure, these two works seem to achieve a identical goal: to give power to women. Whether in “Lanval” or in “The Wife of Bath's Tale”, the female protagonists are praised for their beauty and from it they manage to gain power over men. the description of the female protagonist, the girl, already highlights her physical beauty, when it is said that "she surpassed in beauty the lily and the new rose when she appears in summer", "Her body was well formed and beautiful" and that “she was whiter than the hawthorn flower” (Marie de France 74, her charm is confirmed by the narrator's description of her arrival at King Arthur's court: “There was none in the city, humble). or powerful, old or young, who did not observe his arrival, and no one joked about his beauty. She approached slowly and the judges who saw her thought she was a great prodigy. No one who looked at it could fail to be inspired with true joy” (80). If the narrator praises the fairy's extraordinary appearance so much in “Lanval,” it is because her beauty contributes to her power over men. In this sense, Emma Caitlin Briscoe explains that:[The girl's attractive appearance] is enough in itself to exercise power over male characters. His physical attributes act as sources of power; the varying levels of eroticism, sexualized detail and description, used to illustrate these women in Marie de France's Lai de Lanval can be read as subtle, and occasionally overt, power plays intended to reconstruct women's position within the binaries of candies. (Briscoe 12-13) It is true that the beauty of the heroine of “Lanval” is a source of power that she uses against men. For example, she takes advantage of this to attract the attention of the court when she approaches the king during the trial and "in the sight of everyone, [drops] her cloak so that [they can] see her better" (Marie de France 81 ). The effect of this demonstration is that the king "rose to meet her, and all the others honored her and offered themselves as her servants" (81). Unlike the girl, the female protagonist of “The Wife of Bath's Tale” has a less obvious attractiveness, as she is often defined as an old and ugly figure. Nonetheless she draws power from it even after her transformation at the end of the tale, when Chaucer writes that "And when the knight saugh verraily all this, / That she was so fair, and so young, / For joy he hente takes in his two arms . / His heart bathed in bliss. / A thousand times he earned a kiss” (Chaucer III: 1250-54).Once the knight sees the old lady's new physical appearance, he takes the woman in his arms and kisses her, all with his heart beating fast. Considering his previous disparaging attitude towards the old lady, his actions can be interpreted as a way of betraying himself to her and this shows that the heroine of the story is able to draw power even from her beauty. Beyond their physical appearances, the female protagonists of "Lanval" and "The Wife of Bath's Tale" also gain power from their actions and speeches. Indeed, as Quinn explains, “In the context of this male-oriented literature, which celebrates chivalric helpfulness, Chaucer, like Marie, inverts the tradition of saving damsels” (Quinn 216). In both stories the only ones who can save the knight from certain death are the girl and the old lady respectively. Therefore, the lives of the two knights depend entirely on the female protagonists of each story who, obviously, give them a non-negligible power. In “Lanval,” the girl underlines her role as savior when she asks the king “As for the boast he has made, if he can be absolved by me, let your barons free him!” (Mary of France 81). In “The Wife of Bath's Tale”, the supremacy of the old lady is even more evident because, as Quinn explains, the reader faces “the final irony of the tale, that the knight is humiliated, tamed, perhaps redeemed, not by a courteous attitude. lady, but by an apparently poor old woman who is his wife” (Quinn 216). Female empowerment can also be noted elsewhere in the stories. For example, in “Lanval”, the girl imposes the confidentiality of her relationship with Lanval through the following words: “I warn you, I order you and I beg you not to reveal this secret to anyone! I'll tell you long and short: You would lose me forever if this love were known. You could never see me or possess me” (Marie de France 75). Through this order, it is the girl who dictates the rules of their relationship and is therefore in a position of superiority compared to the knight. Furthermore, the narrator reinforces the girl's power by dragging out some evidence throughout the story, such as when he says that the fairy “commanded” (75) or that Lanval “allowed him” (75). In “The Wife of Bath,” the old lady proceeds similarly. For example, after the knight is acquitted, she expresses herself before the Court and says: "Mercy," she said, "my sovereign lady queene! Er, who have departed from the court, do me good. I have taught this answer to the knight ; for which he dedicated his trouthe to me there, the first thing I would have asked, he would have done, if it were in his power. Before the court prays to you, sir knight, "Quod lei," that you take me your life, for it is good that I have kept your life.” (Chaucer III: 1048-56) In this passage, Erin Dee Moore explains that “The old wife will not let slip a potential opportunity for marriage. . uses the tactic to his advantage by interrupting the knight's trial. He waits until the knight is acquitted before announcing his claims on him” (Moore 27). make his request, it is very likely that, in private, the knight would have refused it. So, as Chaucer suggests when he writes “But all for the night; the end is this, that he/Constreyned was; he needs a marriage more, / and takes his old wife, and goes to bed. ” (Chaucer III: 1070-72), the presence of another powerful woman, the queen, forces the knight to accept the old lady's request. Another striking example of the old woman's power can be seen when she gives an ultimatum to the knight and he is forced to make the difficult choicebetween a beautiful but perhaps cheating wife or an old and ugly but faithful wife (III: 1213-27). All these illustrations therefore demonstrate that, through their speeches and actions, the maiden and the old lady both have power over the knights. In addition to the girl and the old lady, the queens are also female characters who stand out in every story. thanks to the power they possess as women and not just because they hold imperial power. Indeed, in “Lanval”, after the knight rejects her sexual advances, the queen complains about him to her husband. The king reacts forcefully to his wife's accusations and orders that “if Lanval could not defend himself in court, he would have him burned or hanged” (77), which are severe punishments for simply upsetting the queen. It is true that she is said to "[manipulated] the situation, portraying herself as the victim of an insult to her husband, and through him puts Lanval on trial and almost sees him punished" ("Bath's Wife/Lanval"). His power over the king is evident several times throughout the story. For example, when “The king pressed them because the queen was waiting for them” (79) or later, when it is said that “[the king] summoned all his barons to give their verdict [because] the queen, who was waiting for them for a long time, he was angry” (80). Therefore, in “Lanval” it is not the authority of a queen that is emphasized, but rather the power of a woman over her husband. The queen in “The Wife of Bath's Tale” is also an authoritative figure and exercises her superiority even over her husband. Although she only appears at the beginning and end of the story, the queen plays a significant role thanks to the power she possesses. It may be seen first, when the king commands: That dampened was this knight to be made, for cours of lawe, and Sholde Han lost his attention - Paraventure Swich was the statute though - But that the queen and the other ladies moSo longe preyeden the king of grace till his lyf hym croaked in the place, and yaf hym to the queen, al hir wille, to ask if she would save him or pour him. (Chaucer III: 891-98) Moore's explanation of this scene is that “By putting the knight on trial, the queen and her court want to assert their power over the knight. This is a tactical maneuver to get a man to recognize female desire. . . The queen asks to put the knight on trial, not because she wants to save his life, but because she wants him to express female desire” (Moore 28). Extrapolating this idea, it is true that not only does the queen steal the king's authority in this passage, but she also forces the criminal to publicly acknowledge something in favor of all women. It can therefore be assumed that, in both “Lanval” and “The Wife of Bath's Tale,” the queens, as female figures, also have power over their husbands. Finally, the criticism of chivalry that can be drawn from the two stories is another aspect that contributes to the emancipation of women. Several critics have actually said that what differentiates “The Wife of Bath's Tale” from “Lanval” was the authors' and narrators' views on chivalry. However, what I would like to argue here is that both accounts maintain the same position regarding this topic. The only difference between the two is that Chaucer's criticism is more evident than that of Marie de France but that both tales, by belittling the knights, contribute to strengthening the power of women. Indeed, in “The Wife of Bath's Tale,” Chaucer's denunciation of knighthood is unequivocal: “The code of chivalry states that one must treat women with respect. In Chaucer's tale we see a great lack of respect towards the Knight in question. . . rapes a girl, disrespects [the old lady] by telling her that she is old and ugly and not fit to be with him” (“‘Lanval’ and ‘Lawife of Bath'”: commonalities and differences between the numbered lines” ). Through these acts, it clearly appears to the reader that the knight in "The Wife of Bath's Tale" possesses a real aversion to women. What consequently empowers the women here is that, at the end of the tale, even this misogynistic knight leaves him the old lady decides the fate of the rest of his existence: this knight avyseth hym and siketh sore, but lately he seyde in this manere : "My lady and my love, and wyf so deere, I place myself under thy wise government; Cheseth thyself that may be the most pleasant joy and the greatest honor also to thee and to me. I do not for the one or the other of the two, because as you prefer, it is enough for me (Chaucer III: 1228-35)In the story of Mary of France, Sharon Kinoshita emphasizes several “anti-feudal” aspects (Kinoshita 270). For example, Kinoshita states that “Whereas Lanval considered the feudal bond that bound him to his lord, the king, Arthur, to be inviolable. . . he is less scrupulous, putting his vassal on trial for his supposed insults to the queen” (272). It is indeed surprising that the words of an exemplary and devoted knight like Lanval become inaudible to the king's ears against the queen's false accusation. As demonstrated above when discussing the queen's authority, the queen's words are more convincing to King Arthur than the explanations of his most faithful knight. This may seem surprising knowing that chivalry is usually considered a central pillar of the Middle Ages. The most striking example is probably the behavior of Lanval, considered the archetype of the knight thanks to his devotion to the king and his chivalrous attitude. Kinoshita effectively explains that: “In the end, Lanval is striking precisely because of the protagonist's rejection of both feudal and chivalric values. Taking literally all the clichés of courtly speech – honoring his lady rather than his lord, choosing love over reputation – he abandons Arthur's court, willingly choosing an oblivion unthinkable for an epic hero like Roland and a romantic hero like Erec or Yvain” (272 )So what empowers women here is that even the ideal knight prefers to give up his professional duty to elope with the female protagonist of the story. It can therefore be assumed that both Marie de France and Chaucer, through criticism of chivalry, contribute to the emancipation of women. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay “The Wife of Bath's Tale” and “Lanval” are structured similarly, both telling the story of a knight condemned to death but saved by a fairy woman. The two stories take place in a fairy universe and can be classified as an "unconventional Arthurian novel". Furthermore, some peculiarities, such as narrative intrusions, bring them even closer. However, what makes “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” a new “Lanval” production is the fact that both tales aim to empower women. It is in fact demonstrated that through the description of the appearances, speeches and actions of the female protagonist, the authority of the queens and the general criticism of chivalry, the purpose of these two stories is to give women power over men. Therefore, in addition to the general similarities of the stories, the fact that they have the same goal allows it to be said that Geoffrey Chaucer's work can be considered as a revival of the lai.Works CitedBriscoe, Emma Caitlin by Marie de France. Female agency, eroticism and emancipation in Marie de France's Lai de Lanval. May 5, 2015, vtechworks. lib. vt. edu/bitstream/handle/10919/56669/Briscoe_EC_T_2015. pdf; sequence = 1. Chaucer, Geoffrey. THE-3741.