"All These False Fowls": The Rational Language of Geoffrey Chaucer's Birds and Women

SUMMARY

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s account of a fictional English pilgrimage, The Canterbury Tales (1387–1400), andin his dream vision Parliament of Fowls (ca. 1380), anthropomorphized birds illuminate the complexity of who hasa voice, and, by extension, who is rational and capable ofself-determination. These birds often share a connectionwith the female characters in their tales—either in rolesthat parallel one another (as in the “Manciple’s Tale”) or inthe relationships they share with female characters (like inthe “Squire’s Tale”)—linking the voicelessness of nature tothat of women. Chaucer’s uncanny birds unsettle the boundaries between humans and nature, complicating genderedassumptions of women’s irrationality in Chaucer’s work.