Furthermore, this autobiography provides an intimate look at a remarkable medieval life and tends to deal with the external world only as it directly impinges on the author's inner spiritual growth. ... The author, a well-off middle class townswoman, lives in a medieval English town of King's Lynn. ... At times she is accepted as a holy woman and her advice and blessings are solicited. ... Margery Kempe is arrested several times while making her travels through the north parts of England and defends herself against any accusations, while remaining respectful to authority. ... While...

• Word Count: 1321
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

It is no secret that there was an extreme inequality amongst men and women in the medieval period where middle English literature resides. ... These transactions, similar to those used for goods and services, is an indisputable example of the low regard and respect woman possessed in the medieval period. ... The wife, being married five times " which already has her viewed upon as strange " admits that her first three husbands, all of whom she considered good, were old, rich, and submissive. ... However, one can also argue that what she does is no different than the aforementioned...

• Word Count: 1394
• Approx Pages: 6
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The Wife had been married five times already, and Chaucer noted her assertiveness and sensuality as evidenced by the gaps in her teeth. ... The Prologue is more than the Wife's autobiography about her life, her husbands, and why she married them; she would have been viewed as a horrible woman by the medieval Church, deceitful in her actions and reasons for marriage. ... Further, the task given the knight by the queen (to find out "what thing it is that women most desire-) is noteworthy because in medieval times, very little attention was paid to what women wanted, even if they were roy...

• Word Count: 1172
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

In The Decameron, Boccaccio places us in a time when the plague was running rampant within the medieval realm. ... Soon after, the seven women and three men quickly find themselves leaving town with only with an agenda to "pursue whatever pleasures and entertainments the present times would afford while shunning at all costs the lewd practices of their fellow citizens (16-17)." ...

• Word Count: 1609
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

The Canterbury Tales is a collection of tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer published in 1475. The Canterbury Tales, as a whole, exhibit different social conventions of the Fourteenth Century and exploit them for being a kind of facade. The Clerk's Tale and The Franklin's Tale address the social conve...

• Word Count: 3668
• Approx Pages: 15
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate