Weasels and Angels: Rhetorical and Communicative Strength and Weakness in Selected Women of The Canterbury Tales

Abstract

This thesis looks at the communicative methods and rhetorical strategies of five women characters found in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales through the lens of Helene Cixous's description of written female language as applied spoken language to examine the dichotomy of "weakness in strength" and "strength in weakness" these characters portray.