Chaucer's Perception Of Marriage In The Canterbury Tales

Marriage to many people is known as a sacred tradition, but it’s been shown that not everyone uses it to display their love. In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, the role of

The Wife of Bath characterizes a woman’s perception of marriage and the roles that are adopted by both the males and females in society. The concept of the idealistic marriage where men are to go out and provide while women stay home, cook, and care to the needs of her husband and children. The literary components incorporated throughout the tale such as, satire, repetition and allusions, create a larger platform for understanding to help influence an opinion of the character and challenge people’s perception on how marriage should be regarded. Dominance within relationships can

Chaucer confidently uses allusions to aid The Wife of Bath in proving her points on marriage and monogamy by referencing God and his teachings in the bible. The Wife of Bath, being the manipulative woman that she is, ironically found many ways to cling on to her purity in the eyes of God. Being known to be promiscuous she uses the line “Be fruitful and multiply”

(Chaucer 28). This refers to a popular line in the bible that regards how people are to live life fully and to live and procreate, for this is God’s way. She uses this to her advantage as an excuse to having multiple husbands. God never gave a set number on how many spouses a man or a woman may have. She feels that this is her free pass to do what she wants with whom she wants when it comes to sex. She mostly uses biblical allusions to cement her ideals about marriage and prove to people that if God thinks what she does is alright then it must be perfectly fine. The

Wife of Bath lusts for the attention of men and craves for them to be single so it is easier for