The titular character in Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” challenges medieval patriarchy in an attempt to denounce the sexist ideals at the time. However, the Wife of Bath herself is not a flawless example of feminism.…
This interpretation is weakened by the fact that the Wife of Bath herself conforms to a number of these misogynist and misogamist (antimarriage) stereotypes. For example, she describes herself as sexually voracious but at the same time as someone who only has sex to get money, thereby combining two contradictory stereotypes. She also describes how she dominated her husband, playing on a fear that was common to men, as the Pardoner’s nervous interjection reveals. Despite their contradictions, all of these ideas about…
Chaucer's Wife of Bath is one of the most amazing characters in English Literature. She is a strong, clever, independent woman who knows what she likes and usually gets it. She is lusty and not shy about it. She exposes and mocks misogyny in various ways, showing just how misogynistic medieval society was. However, although her strong willed nature and mockery of this patriarchy is apparent, as an audience we still remain confused, and discover aspects of her characteristics and journey, which show that perhaps she is still trapped in this ideal male dominated world. The Wife of Bath, Alison is represented as a rare and unique woman in the initial portrayal of her in the prologue, but at the end of her prologue, the Wife of Bath succumbs to the pressure of society, conforms and becomes the medieval wife.…
When studying the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Wife of Bath’s Tale, both coming from the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, you see a common theme of feminism. Also, you get a good sense of the of the anti feminist cultural norms and ideas regarding women in the medieval era. Alisoun, The Wife of Bath, focuses most upon the common stereotypes of women. These stereotypes include the idea that women only marry into money in order to live a lavish lifestyle off of their husband’s income as well as the belief that women will never stop talking to their husbands. Stemming from this, the common belief among men was that if you were to get married, it would ruin your chances of success later in life. The Wife of Bath opposed all of these…
In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, Chaucer promotes a modern feministic perspective as he implements…
In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” the knight received a punishment and was rewarded as well for violently raping an innocent girl just because he could not control himself. In the beginning of the tale, the knight was selfish and masochistic and clearly wanted to show his power and dominance over the girl by raping her, to prove that women could not have control over men. Chaucer states, “Hadde in his hous a lusty bacheler, that on a day cam rydinge fro river; and happed that, allone as she was born, he saugh a mayde walkinge him biforn of whiche mayde anon, maugree hir heed, by verray force he rafte hir maydenheed…” (Chaucer 26-32). The knight was punished for what he had done, but not in the way the reader may expect. He had to search for a year what women wanted most, and when he found the answer (that women wanted to be in charge of their lovers and spouses), he was allowed to live but had to marry the hag who gave him the answer.…
The wife of bath is a very confident woman who, in the prologue of her tale, talks about her five husbands. She seems very satisfied with her life and her choices; she is fulfilled regardless of the men she was married to. Even with all their deaths, she remains happy and independent. “But even now I will strive to be merry.” (Lines 478-479) The story she tells is about a knight who, after he rapes a young girl, is forced by the queen to find out what women desire the most. He finally discovers that what women want the most is to have sovereignty over their husbands. This goes directly along with the character of the wife of bath, who loved the control she had over her husbands more than anything else. The story proves that the answer to what women want the most is not just one static statement. What a person desires most in life depends on their own character and their own…
In The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, the narrator introduces many characters in “The Prologue.” Twenty-nine strangers embark on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, one of them being the Wife of Bath. In “The General Prologue”, “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”, and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, the Wife of Bath is described in a very critical, yet amusing way.…
The story the Wife of Bath and Sir Gawain tell are the same general plot and climax. The sequence of events that occur happen in the same order just to the different characters. King Arthur rules both stories and give the decision of the punishment to the different girls to decide what is to be done to each knight. The question arises, what is it that women desire most? In each of the stories, the knight finds the answer on the last day of hunting. The knight in the Wife of Bath’s tale saves his own life, whereas the knight in Sir Gawain’s tale saves King Arthur. Each of the tales differ in focus and literary themes, due to the power and position of the Wife of Bath, and the true test of an honorary knight .…
In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales: “The Wife of Bath”, one acquires insight on the character Wife of Bath and how her ideals and principles differ from the customs in medieval times. Wife of Bath was a perceptive and dominant women that was looked upon as a gold digger that used her body as a way to get around the bushes with men. While it may be true, it is without a doubt that she expressed actions that where desired by many women at the time, but were resistant to show these actions because it went against social regulations.…
During the Middle Ages, men are known to have more power than women, controlling them and taking advantage over them. Women do not have the same rights as men and they are treated differently. Men are superior while women are inferior. Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales changes the society of the Middle Age completely in The Wife of Bath. In The Wife of Bath, the main character of this tale, or the one telling this tale, is a woman, the Dame Alice. The Dame Alice tells her tale as if she has nothing to hide and she explains the role of women in her tale and she explains her tale, thus, becoming the first feminist character in Western Literature.…
In the day of Geoffrey Chaucer, there was a set philosophy known as the Patriarchy. Also, there was a division of the classes, such as: the poor people, who couldn’t afford a simple meal; the middle class, who had a way of making ends meet, but only to a certain extent, and the upper lords and kings, who were seen as better than the people previously stated. Again, in “Canterbury Tales,” Chaucer created a woman, known as the wife of bath, who explicates the details about her own life, along with a long winded story. Firstly, within the story she relays, the knight must marry an elder woman, for she had saved his life. The woman hates the idea of the knight being so arrogant about his stature, and she attacks his nobility. Also, the wife of bath critiques the way the knight profiles the woman by her poverty. Lastly, the old woman has a brief…
The novel contains many stories on how females were portrayed during medieval times. A tale in the novel called The Wife Of Bath's Tale, gives a common situation in which a man must pursue a women, but not for marriage. The Knight must find what women desire most in order to not be executed for rape. He finally finds the answer from an old woman, who tells him that all women desire to be in charge of their husbands/lovers. For example, Chaucer writes, “A women wants the self-same sovereignty, over her husband as over her lover, and master him he mustn't be above her (p. 282). “ This statement is more or less true, and is showing how women want to be their own person, but at the same time be viewed as equally powerful to their male counterparts. Women aren't the problem, the problem is what society expects them to be. Although the conflict concerns a man trying to get out of being killed for a crime, the women in this story serve a greater, and thoughtful purpose. Ultimately, the knight marries the old woman, but isn't satisfied because of her appearance. In contrast, the woman doesn't take offense to his behavior, instead…
The plot in itself has the gaining of knowledge at its core: with the Rapist Knight needing to find out what women desire most in order to save his life. In his particular case, finding the answer to the question has an obviously positive result: his life is spared and he is married to a beautiful, young woman in the end. However, the Wise Old Woman’s possession of knowledge is perhaps more emphasized (keeping with the theme of extraordinary women). She is able to grasp the young knight’s attention with her promising wisdom- not with her beauty. All other main characters that are women in the Wife of Bath’s tale are supposedly beautiful and young. Including the Wise Old Woman seems to juxtapose the situation. Chaucer may be alluding to the fact that knowledge is more valuable than looks; beauty can fade but knowledge can only grow. The Wise Old Woman also reflects the Wife Of Bath on a smaller scale. She is able to argue with the knight against every one of his objections on their wedding night. She uses Jesus as an example of how poverty isn’t necessarily negative; she points to the wrongs of the nobility when accused of being of a lower class (the knight raped a girl); she promises to be faithful due to her unattractiveness; and she points out that she is wise and experienced to her age. In the end, the knight’s satisfactory answer to the Wise Old Woman’s choice leaves both with a “happily ever after”…
In the middle ages men and women were not looked at as equals. Once women were married to a man they were only looked at as property. In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, he exemplifies his view on the differences between men and women in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale. In Wife of Bath’s tale men feel superiority over women, although women in the end gain the power.…