In a significant number of his tales Chaucer uses the comic genre of fabliaux, which are short, typically anti-intellectual, indecent tales of bourgeois or low life. The plot usually involves an older husband who is cuckholded by a younger man whom (often) the older man has himself brought into the house, and his often younger wife. The Miller, the Reve, the Merchant and the Wife of Bath all tell tales which are essentially amoral - in fitting with the genre; tales which would not have been acceptable had they been written in an aristocratic setting, but which were accepted as suitable depictions of lower class life. Furthermore, the women in these tales (with except to the Wife of Bath) are portrayed as goals to be attained or as sexual territories to be conquered, rather than equal and respected partners in marriage. Fabliau tales were once viewed as a...