Alison is yet again compared to a farm yard animal. “Therto she koude skippe and make game, As any kyde or calf folwynge his dame.”. Here Chaucer describes Alison as a young goat. The first impressions of a young goat are cute and energetic, but the undertone of the simile is awkwardness, of gangly stature and highly driven by sex. Another simile of Alison being gangly is “Long as a mast, and upright as a bolt”. Here Alison is described as a stereotypical perfect woman, tall and thin. But, the monosyllabic tone brings out the harsh truth of Alison really being extremely thin and not curvy at all, and curves are a very attractive quality to a woman. Chaucer finishes the description of Alison’s physical appearance by describing her as a flower, which at first seems like a very nice compliment but, of course, there is a connotation which is not so pleasing. “She was a prymerole, a piggesnye”. At this point, Chaucer describes Alison as a type of primrose. A primrose is a pretty flower but, the hidden meaning is that a primrose is nothing special. It is a pale colour which could represent Alison’s complexion as sickly.
Chaucer begins by describing Alison’s clothes and adornments as white. “A barmclooth as whit as morne milk Upon her lendes, ful many a goore.”. The whiteness of the apron is symbolic of purity and chastity. But, the real truth is that the colour is mundane and dull. Plus, it is not ladylike to mention loins, “lendes”, which emphasises are unladylike qualities even more. “many a goore” means that she is fussy, over-the-top and overdramatic which, usually, is not an attractive feature of a woman’s personality. Before Chaucer hinted that Alison is parallel to a prostitute, this is stressed again in the following description, “And by her girdle heeng a purs of lether”. Even leather is very expensive, the “girdle”, her belt, is hung very low. This attracts attention to her legs. This emphasises her inappropriate style of dress and her similarities to a prostitute. An additional reference to her deliberately drawing attention to her legs is “Hir shoes were laced on hir legges high”. The most blatant theme in that quotation is the sexiness of her ankle but there is a hint of the lacing of her shoes acing as a ‘ladder’ that someone would use to ‘climb’ up her leg.
The following quotation is a perfect summary of Alison with the suitable connotation as well, “So gay a popelote or swich a wench”. This is describing Alison as doll-like, pretty and perfect but the hidden meaning, or hidden agenda of Alison’s, is that she is sexually available to members of the opposite sex in the same way that prostitutes are. It would appear that Chaucer’s view is that courtly love completely overlooks a young woman’s natural sexual development. It only takes a spirited young woman, such as Alison, to demonstrate how much the courtly tradition can never suppress her true sexual instincts. Moreover, Alison is probably bored with her husband and transmits provocative messages to other men through her manner of dress. Through Alison, Chaucer is parodying the courtly love tradition. Alison is a significant character in that she acts as a portrayal of Chaucer’s views on the hollow nature of courtly love. Alison lived in a time when women where subservient to men. They had no power, only men did, and they were only seen as objects of distant desire or to provide the male heir. There was a strict code of behaviour which women and men were expected to abide by but as Chaucer infers this did not allow for natural human instincts, particularly someone as obviously attractive and alluring as Alison. There is
no doubt in my mind that Chaucer is describing the type of woman that he is attracted to, and that John, her husband, is the typical type of man that he dislikes.
In the final rhyming couplet of the description of Alison, Chaucer states that Alison’s demeanour would not be fitting for a relationship with a Lord, which I believe she clearly wants. Her manner of dress is not restrained enough, which is due to her social background.