Chaucer and Love: the Role of Heterosexual Relationships in Verifying Masculinity

This fresshe beautee sleeth me sodeynly
Of hire that rometh in the yonder place;
And but I have hir mercy and hir grace,
That I may seen hire atte leeste weye,
I nam but deed; ther nis namoore to seye. ("The Knight's Tale" 1118-22)

In "The Knight's Tale," Arcite says these words in proclamation of his love for the woman that his cousin Palamon swears must be Venus. The cousins spot the woman, Emelye, from the window of their prison cell and begin a rivalry of lovers, both striving to win a woman they have not met. While their nearly simultaneous cases of love at first sight might appear innocent enough, their thoughtless devotions toward an idealized woman who has, in their minds, become an object of affection and has never been developed into a full character, and their desperate need to claim her as their own may not be related to the actual notion of love as much as to verification of their manhood. The cousins may find their rivalry not in the actual act of love as much as in the fulfilling of a heterosexual relationship that will justify their masculinity to the world around them. In discussing Chaucer's works, one can argue that masculinity is both dependent upon and threatened by the existence of heterosexual love and that the male rivalries present in several of the relationships within Chaucer's tales are of greater importance to the men involved than the women they wish to win.

In examining the relationship between love and masculinity, one will find that "The Knight's Tale" is not the only segment from the collection of The Canterbury Tales which examines male rivalry over an objectified female figure, and, in fact, The Canterbury Tales is not the only example of Chaucer's work that explores heterosexual relationships as a requirement of verified masculinity. Just as in "The Knight's Tale," in The Parliament of Fowls, a male rivalry is central to the relationship. Also central is the objectified female over whom the males fight. In "The Knight's Tale," Emelye is less than another human character, if not in the tale itself, in the minds of the cousins who wish to marry her. Writer Elaine Hansen provides an answer to the question of why Emelye's objectification is a requirement for the cousins, aside from the quickness with which their obsession for her began: "[...] that neither of them looks to stand a chance of actually winning the lady's hand is irrelevant; the competition is all" (210). As Hansen implies, the rivalry is of far greater importance than Emelye. Their maiden is not a maiden but a thing which they must win or possess in order to prove that they are truly men. The greater relationship in the story is between Palamon and Arcite; however, their loyalty to one another and their friendship is broken because of a duty to successfully display proof of their manliness.

Likewise, in The Parliament of Fowls, the great rivalry mentioned in the text is between three royal eagles that all want to mate the beautiful female eagle that the goddess figure of Nature shows such great affection: "A formel egle, of shap he gentilleste/That evere she among her werkes found,/ The moste benygne and the goodlieste" (372-75). When the head of the royal tercel eagles has proclaimed his love and his choice in mate as the formel, he awaits the formel's reply but a tercel of lower station speaks up to challenge his proclamation of love: " 'That shal nat be!/ I love hire bet than ye don, by Seint John'" (450-1). After he speaks, yet another tercel decides to voice his love and makes a move to win the formel with a speech of devotion. It is important to note that Nature has given the eagle of greatest authority the right to ask for the formel but that the two challenges are made without waiting for a proper response from the formel or Nature. The tercels issue the challenge, though not with the promise of some sort of combat as was the case in "The Knight's Tale," without regard for the formel's wishes, just as Arcite and Palamon do not consider that Emelye wishes to remain unmarried to such an extent that she has begged a response from the goddess Diana. The females become objects of desire, but the aspect of desire is barely more than verbalized. It is the rivalry that is apparent once the lofty speeches that are present in cases of courtly love are removed. All that remains, as Hansen notes, is the competition. True and established male relationships, either between classes/social standards or through direct friendship, are dissolved to make room for the marriage that will verify masculinity.

In Chaucer's works, a full sense of masculinity is reliant on a heterosexual relationship, and, in turn, critics speculate on whether manhood in general is reliant on the act of forming such a connection with a woman. In Troilus and Criseyde, Troilus is a lesser son of Troy who laughs at those men partaking in courtly love; however, once Troilus sees Criseyde and is struck by Cupid's arrow, he becomes greater than he was, dropping his jokester qualities and becoming a virtuous and accomplished warrior:

Wo was that Grek that with hym mette a-day!

And in the town his manere tho forth ay

So goodly was, and gat hym so in grace,

That ecch hym loved that loked on his face.

For he bicom the frendlieste wight,

The gentilest, and ek the mooste fre,

The thriftiest, and oon the beste knight

That in his tyme was or myghte be;

Dede were his japes and his cruelte,

His heighe port and his manere estraunge,

And ecch of tho gan for a vertu change. (1. 1075-85)

Troilus has left behind childish behaviors and taken on the role of a man since he has been assured by Pandare that he will have a chance of a heterosexual relationship with Criseyde. With the role of a man comes the virtues of a knight, according the critic Damian Love, who concentrates his reading of Troilus and Criseyde on Troilus's role as a player of courtly love (393). It is important to note that, when there is a threat on his potential relationship with Criseyde, there is, likewise, a threat on his manhood. His virtues do not fully fade, for his has found his masculinity in the assurance of this relationship and is not quick to lose it again. However, those elements of manliness that have developed in Troilus's character waver when she is not participating in his game of courtly love (394). Troilus falls into a depression without her assurances, and, when at last, she is fully lost to him to her father and another warrior, death is the final, clear result of the loss of this relationship. The loss of a potential relationship leads to death, or, at least loss of masculinity, so the question must be asked: is Troilus's fear of not being able to form a relationship with Criseyde fueled by his love for her or his need to establish his masculinity to himself? By this reasoning, when Troilus, early into the story, decides to keep his newfound love secret, does he do so to keep Criseyde hidden and his shame of laughing at the other lovers in check or does he do so for fear that this relationship may never develop and that he will lose his verification of manhood? Troilus's gloomy behavior toward potential loss of love is not singular in Chaucer's works: where the argument for masculinity's reliance on a heterosexual relationship might be made, there is also present the threat that same love holds over masculinity, the threat of lost verification.

While masculinity finds its verification through the establishment of a relationship, if that relationship is questioned or denied by the object of affection, then the loss of verification occurs. It would not be overstepping the importance of this verification to state that many of the male figures in Chaucer's works fear the loss of this verification. When this threat comes to light, it becomes apparent that the objectified female character holds power of the male character's manhood. While her consent is not necessary for the male character to begin his proclamation of love, if she is given the chance to choose whether or not to develop the relationship, the male character is given reason to fear. For this reason, the male character finds any time in which the female might be able to change her mind a time in which his masculinity might be lost both in his mind and in the mind of the society who finds this verification process necessary. Perhaps it is for this reason that some of Chaucer's characters, in representing the society of their time, find it necessary to put such division between male and female, such as the Host from The Cantebury Tales does when addressing women. The Host is described as a masculine figure in physical appearance:

A large man he was with eyen stepe-

A fairer burgeys was ther noon in Chepe-

Boold of his speche, and wys, and wel ytaught,

And of manhood hym lakkede right naught. (Gen Prologue 753-6)

With this pre-established masculinity, the Host has no need to justify his manhood through relationships and appears to be "a man's man" (Pugh 39). The Host echoes society's views on masculinity and, in doing so, also echoes their views on women, according the Dr. Jesus Reyes who focuses on the idiolect of the Host and the character's constant reference to the Wife of Bath as a woman. While there is no significance in calling a woman a woman, the Host specifically refers to her, a woman who is outspoken, by her gender as if it is an unfortunate aspect, but refers to the quiet (and, in turn, feminine) Prioress as "it" ("The Shipman's Tale" 446) or simply "lady Prioress" (Reyes 3). The significance is the reflection on women; the Prioress is a character apart from other women because of her title, but the Host, though his masculinity is fully established and not threatened, still must reflect the society's need to justify gender for the benefit of other characters. While he reflects society through characters, Chaucer reflects the effect of society in the lovers' need to force themselves in a heterosexual relationship. In this way, Chaucer makes known the difficulties of, as well as the importance of, "securing masculine identity and dominance" and the hardship caused when a society relies upon establishing constructed gender identity through the participation of the opposite gender (Hansen 13).

Though Chaucer's lovers rely heavily on a heterosexual relationship to verify their manhood, they also fear the resistance of the woman they have fallen in love with and resent her ability to deny them their manhood. Priscilla Martin's book Chaucer's Women notes the role of women to men of the Middle Ages by making mention of Chaunticleer's favorite lover Pertelote in "The Nun's Priest's Tale" from TheCanterbury Tales and the couple's unspoken parallel with Adam and Eve (2). She notes when Pertelote talks Chaunticleer into not worrying about his dreams, leading him astray, she is representative of Chaucer's " 'archewyves'" who are "domineering women like the Wife of Bath" (3). While her book does not specifically point out the relation of a "domineering" woman's ability to speak for herself with masculinity of the time, the connection is, nevertheless, present. One can assume through applying the idea of masculinity verification, that men have reason to fear a woman who can make decisions and that it has little to do with the Fall from paradise that Pertelote and Chauntecleer parody. This can be best applied during another story of bird relations, The Parliament of Fowls. In Parliament, the birds are relatively different. Chauntecleer was of a lower class and but the king over his own roost, the husband of man wives, but Parliament provides a variety of birds that represent the many classes found in human society. A key difference is the relationships within the two works; in "The Nun's Priest's Tale" Chauntecleer has no rivalry (perhaps this is the reason that Pertelote is able to talk him out of worrying over his dream vision and has such an outspoken nature), but, in Parliament, the rivalry is a focus in the gathering of birds. In discussing the importance of rivalry between men in fighting for masculinity, the tercel eagles were noted as having disputed over who should have the privilege and who was most worthy (because of their own love and admiration) of mating with Nature's favored formel. Their rivalry resembles the rivalry between the cousins, Arcite and Palamon, from "The Knight's Tale"; however, unlike "The Knight's Tale," the birds are not given a chance to compete for her hand with anything more than words. The formel, unlike Emelye, is given the chance to speak and refuses all three of the tercels by not making a decision for the mating season.

In The Parliament of Fowls, the formel's indecisive nature represents one of the great fears of Chaucer's male characters and one of the great threats towards their masculinity. Elaine Hansen theorizes that the formel's indecisiveness derives from the need reinforce the necessary place of the "quiet woman" and that the tale shows the duress caused by woman's inability to make decisions (112). Hansen goes on to answer the question as to why indecisiveness is not a good thing for the tercels or any male figure. The formel's inability to decide between the tercel eagles, Hansen says, represents the very result that men fear most. The tercels, as representing men who are competing for masculinity, fear that women will choose not to love men at all, eliminating the process of verifying masculinity through heterosexual relationships (125). Without the relationship, how, in a society where this union is important, will they prove their manhood to the world and to themselves? The idea of men feeling threatened by women withdrawing themselves from the relationship is not only apparent in Parliament, but also in the lovers in other works. For Troilus, Criseyde's withdraw throws him into despair and leads to his death, which he has threatened will come since the thought of her indifference first occurs to him, just as the tercels proclaim that they will die if the formel does not love them back.

In studying the role of the heterosexual relationship in the process of establishing masculinity, one can conclude that Chaucer's works are riddled with relationships between men and women that appear to exist for the purpose of establishing gender as defined through social conditioning. Through their own rivalries between other would-be lovers, the fictional males of Chaucer's tales establish themselves as men, but, when they are not allowed to combat with other males for a woman with whom they can establish their masculinity, they fear the loss of their opportunity to prove themselves. The male figures rely upon relationships to establish their manhood, but the threat of love's denial is as great a threat as a sword, and they are constantly aware that the killing blow to their masculinity is most often delivered by the very woman whom they expect will prove their manhood to the world.

Benson, Larry, ed. The Riverside Chaucer. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1987.

Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1992. 13, 108-140.

Love, Damian. " 'Al This Peynted Process': Chaucer and the Psychology of Courtly Love." English Studies 85.5 (2002) 391-98. EBSCO. Collier Lib., Florence, AL. 20 Nov. 2008.

Martin, Priscilla. Chaucer's Women. Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1990. 1-13.

Pugh, Tison. "Queering Harry Bailly: Gendered Carnival, Social Ideologies, and Masculinity Under Duress in the Canterbury Tales." The Chaucer Review 41.1 (2006) 39-69.
EBSCO. Collier Lib., Florence, AL. 1 December 2008.

Reyes, Dr. Jesus. "The Host's Idiolect." SELIM 4 (1994) 20-47. 1 December 2008. http://www.uniovi.es/SELIM/SELIM_PDF/SELIM04.pdf