Although Geoffrey Chaucer focuses on a wide variety of issues in his writings, it is difficult to overlook the importance that he places on his female characters. As a result, many scholars continue to debate whether Chaucer is supportive of women's role in society or if he is an anti-feminist in his works. Since misogyny was a common trend in the medieval era, critics have a valid reason to assume that Chaucer intends to mock women in his texts. Subsequently, many other people claim that Chaucer is trying to defend women from the social stigma that they were receiving during the time period. Regardless of everybody's opinion, in order to reach a solid conclusion, it is important to first interpret some of Chaucer's most notable stories, such as The Canterbury Tales, Troilus and Criseyde and The Legend of Good Women, as well as his background. Despite the fact that there is enough evidence to support both sides of the argument, Chaucer is well known for pointing out many of society's flaws in his tales, therefore it is very likely that he is trying to challenge people's views on women through his work. It is understandable that some scholars believe that Chaucer has a negative opinion on women, due to the fact that he lived in a time period that was strongly influenced by misogyny. In the 13th and 14th Century women were rarely given any respect because they were considered to be expendable. Men practiced polygamy and often replaced their wives with younger more beautiful ones. Women were also considered to be weak and incompetent which is why they were forced into simple undesirable tasks like cooking and cleaning. The church reinforced the idea that women had no value by prohibiting them from doing anything meaningful with their life. It was believed that the sole purpose of the existence of women was to give birth, keep a man company and obey his commands. Furthermore religious narratives like Adam and Eve gave society the notion that women were unfaithful and easily prone to sin. A closer analysis of medieval texts like The Art of Courtly Love by Andreas Capellanus, shows how women were an important topic of debate: "Furthermore, not only is every woman by nature a miser, but she is also envious and a slanderer of other women, greedy, a slave to her belly, inconstant, fickle in her speech, disobedient and impatient of restraint, spotted with the sin of pride and desirous of vainglory, a liar, a drunkard, a babbler, no keeper of secrets, too much given to wantonness, prone to every evil and never loving any man in her heart" (201). This text not only embodies the public opinion during the Middle Ages, but also shows how intense the hatred was towards women. As time went on, the situation slowly improved for women, but it is hard to believe that Chaucer was not somewhat influenced by the social beliefs. Elaine Tuttle Hansen writes in her book Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender about how Geoffrey Chaucer was an anti-feminist: "If Chaucer is the Father of English poetry, we should not wonder that it has been so difficult, over the centuries, for his daughters to write"  (288). According to Hansen if Chaucer had played a role in the surge of medieval feminism, then someone as well respected as him would have made it possible for women to become writers. Hansen may present an interesting theory, but her thesis is a bit too radical. Chaucer lived in the 14th Century not England, not 20th Century America. While Chaucer was influential in the progression of English literature, like most authors, he did not live to see the extent of what he had accomplished. He might have been considered higher class than most, but Chaucer did not have any significant amount of power that could make an immediate difference. Since Chaucer incorporates a decent amount of selfish women characters in his writings, his point of view can easily be mistaken for misogyny. For example, Chaucer's adaptation of the old Greek poem Troilus and Criseyde shows how the female protagonist Criseyde directly feeds the unfaithful medieval woman stereotype. In the story, the male protagonist