A Reflection on Chaucer's Feminist Story: Themes and Analysis

This essay is a reflection on a student's story, titled "It happens and will always happen," which explores feminist themes within a family drama context. The story examines the lives of married women, highlighting the societal and cultural pressures that force them to sacrifice their dreams and aspirations for the sake of family honor and patriarchal expectations. The narrative focuses on the characters of Mr. and Mrs. Chaucer, showcasing how Mrs. Chaucer's dreams are undermined by her family. The essay analyzes the story's characters, themes of gender inequality, and the impact of patriarchal societal norms. The student reflects on the writing process, emphasizing the effectiveness of using simple characters to address complex issues, and how the story can open the eyes of pro-feminists and conservatives. The story also offers a change in perspective of Mr. Chaucer after the death of his wife, leading him to change his approach towards his daughter.

Running head: REFLECTION CHAUCER
REFLECTION CHAUCER
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note

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Short Statement:
The respective story written by me which is titled “It happens and will always happen” is
a story having the themes and overtones of classical or traditional feminism. The respective story
is an eye opener of the lives of ambitious and independent women after they get married where
they have to murder their dreams and aspirations for the sake of their il-laws, family and family
honor. The purpose of the story is to provide the true picture of the so called “happy families”
where a woman has to sacrifice all her happiness, joy and passion in order to satisfy the
whimsical desires and male egos. Even though a woman becomes financially independent, the
society compels her to be socially dependent on their in-laws which results in obnoxious
outcome (Jardine, Alice, and Smith). In this case, Mrs. Chaucer, who never desired to get
pregnant, had to bear a child and as she became disinterested in her life and undermined her
health, she eventually died. The death of Mrs. Chaucer not only signifies the death of a life, but
the death of dreams and aspirations. The genre of the story is family drama and the medium of
the story is third person narrative.
Reflection:
The respective story that I have written which is entitled as “It happens and will always
happen” is a feminist piece which revolves around the life of married women and the socio-
cultural as well as socio-economic conditions around them which compels them to keep
themselves in the shackles of pseudo factors such as “family honor”, “family lineage”,
“motherhood” and femininity. Often, a woman is given the highest position in the society if and
only if she is a mother. In a patriarchal society, the most archaic and traditional way of looking at
women are as mothers and homemakers, which has been a reality even now, even at

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economically developed and modern countries like Australia, according to the story that I have
composed. A woman is seldom given the rights and privileges of being an autonomous
individual. A woman is treated in such a way that even though they become financially
independent, yet they are kept socially dependent on their in-laws in order to save their
reputation in the society. Patriarchal Christian society has always proven the fact that women are
inferior to men therefore, their dreams and aspirations have less value than that of their male
counterparts. The respective story is a story of a so called poster “happy married family” where
the man is the initiator and woman is the receiver. The story has vividly described what
complicacies women go through in their families where they are shackled into chains in between
the four walls of the house, providing them with unwelcomed domiciliary duties and
responsibilities. The audiences I have intended to read the story are the pro-feminists, the liberals
as well as the conservative minded people who often fail to understand the virtue of gender
equality and gender neutrality. The most important part of the story is that, the story revolves
around two “simple and ordinary” characters, Mr. and Mrs. Chaucer, who did not possess any
heroic quality or overrated virtues in them, but however, fell victims in the hands of patriarchy
and provided the audiences the vivid picture of everyday life where patriarchy has engulfed the
whole society. The most interesting part of the story is that both the characters are round
characters, who had developed, both positively and negatively. Mrs. Chaucer, who was
depressed of her pregnancy, became more depressed and desolate which resulted in her death,
whereas, the subtly patriarchal family man or man of the house, Chaucer, realized the fault in
him after his wife died; that he did not provide his wife any opportunity to grow as an individual.
A drastic change appeared in him when he entered into the room of his dead wife with his little
daughter in his lap when he realized the value of a woman in the society and ended up becoming

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a rational, pro-feminist man who was determined to change the course of his and his little
daughter’s life. He decided that he would train his daughter in a way that she lives her life on her
terms and not for pleasing others, which her mother did. He decided to turn his daughter into a
complete and independent woman in future. Such incident shows that Chaucer’s character has
grown positively at the end of the story. Throughout the writing project, I have realized that
writing about colossal theories and discourses by utilizing simple and ordinary characters
increases the credibility of the writing and should be implemented to make the writing more
creative and compelling.

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References:
Jardine, Alice, and Paul Smith, eds. Men in Feminism (RLE Feminist Theory). Routledge, 2013.