The Beard Conceals and Reveals: Covert Hair in Fourteenth-Century Chivalric Romance

Kelsi Roth

doi:10.7710/2168-0620.1134

Abstract

What do beards indicate beyond physical aspects of sex? What do literary representations of beards and hair suggest in terms of masculinity? In the character portraits from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, male hair and beards are used by the characters to keep their secrets and portray who they want other characters to see while the author uses beards and hair to reveal the hypocrisy of this to the reader. Inversely, in “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” hair is used for concealment; in this poem it is used to conceal Bertilak de Hautdesert’s true identity as the Green Knight. In this essay I argue the beards and hair of male characters in both The Canterbury Tales and “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” are a synecdoche, standing in for both the key attributes of the figure and revealing his hypocrisy. Faculty Sponsor: Dr. Elizabeth E. Tavares

Highlights

What do beards indicate beyond physical aspects of sex? What do literary representations of beards and hair suggest in terms of masculinity? In medieval England, beards were symbolic for ideal masculine qualities such as “patriarchal power and social status, physical strength, the rule of reason, and control of emotions and sexuality,” and it was considered to be a marker of masculinity itself (Korhonen 372)
In the character portraits from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, male hair and beards are used by the characters to keep their secrets and portray who they want other characters to see while the author uses beards and hair to reveal the hypocrisy of this to the reader
In “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” hair is used for concealment; in this poem it is used to conceal Bertilak de Hautdesert’s true identity as the Green Knight

Summary

Introduction

The beards and hair of male characters in both The Canterbury Tales and “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” are a synecdoche, standing in for both the key attributes of the figure and revealing his hypocrisy. Beards and hair communicate to the other characters and the reader in The Canterbury Tales by revealing truths about internal character, hypocrisy, secrets, and gender identity.

Results

Conclusion