Wife Essay
Chaucer’s use of irony in the characterization of The Wife of Bath.
Within the literary world there are several devices that are used to either enhance or play down particular situations, events, and or characters. One device that will be explores within the contents of this paper is irony. Irony can be defines as “as implied discrepancy between what is said and what is meant.”1 Although irony is seen as an obscure difference of what is and what was; its format is contained within three different types: verbal, dramatic and irony of situation. Geoffrey Chaucer, a medieval writer, explores the boundaries of each type of irony within his well-known tale, The Canterbury Tales. It is in these tales that he introduces a character that defies all of the stereotypes and label of this gender during the medieval era. Chaucer characterizes this boisterous lady, The Wife of Bath, in a way that greatly adds to her already feminist portrayed aura. Women of the medieval era were characterized as weak and in need of protection. A book produces on the women of English literature entitled Social Backgrounds of English Literature, reports that “the sincere intention was, no doubt, to protect women –first from physical violence, and later from any contacts which might be even faintly distasteful to them. Outwardly and actually it ensured a security from harm greater than any previous protection women had known.”2 This description is completely against the Wife’s character, the spirit that she gives off to her fellows travelers is extremely contrary to whom this lady actually is. Because Chaucer allows The Wife of Bath to contradict herself throughout her prologue and tale, it makes her potentially an interesting character to those who read her story. Verbal irony, “when an author says one thing and means something else”3, is omnipresent throughout the Wife’s account. Practically every word that is uttered from her lips is deviating from her true nature and character. This
Within the literary world there are several devices that are used to either enhance or play down particular situations, events, and or characters. One device that will be explores within the contents of this paper is irony. Irony can be defines as “as implied discrepancy between what is said and what is meant.”1 Although irony is seen as an obscure difference of what is and what was; its format is contained within three different types: verbal, dramatic and irony of situation. Geoffrey Chaucer, a medieval writer, explores the boundaries of each type of irony within his well-known tale, The Canterbury Tales. It is in these tales that he introduces a character that defies all of the stereotypes and label of this gender during the medieval era. Chaucer characterizes this boisterous lady, The Wife of Bath, in a way that greatly adds to her already feminist portrayed aura. Women of the medieval era were characterized as weak and in need of protection. A book produces on the women of English literature entitled Social Backgrounds of English Literature, reports that “the sincere intention was, no doubt, to protect women –first from physical violence, and later from any contacts which might be even faintly distasteful to them. Outwardly and actually it ensured a security from harm greater than any previous protection women had known.”2 This description is completely against the Wife’s character, the spirit that she gives off to her fellows travelers is extremely contrary to whom this lady actually is. Because Chaucer allows The Wife of Bath to contradict herself throughout her prologue and tale, it makes her potentially an interesting character to those who read her story. Verbal irony, “when an author says one thing and means something else”3, is omnipresent throughout the Wife’s account. Practically every word that is uttered from her lips is deviating from her true nature and character. This