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The wife of Bath’s tale supports the theme of dominance of men by women. Which is what she strove for with all her husbands. Unlike the other storytellers, she doesn’t represent a social class, however she represents all women in the middle ages, and holds power over men or husbands. “The Pardoner’s Tale” represents the class of clergymen. The Pardoner is a man who works for the church and relieves people from their sins. He carries scrolls that supposedly are written by the Pope, and sells them to people who have committed immoral acts. He knows that he himself is committing immoral acts, but has no intent to change himself at all. His story shows corruption of the church and how clergymen were situated back in the middle ages. And in the
The Wife of Bath is portrayed as a strong-willed, alpha female. The Wife of Bath upholds the misogynistic ideas of Chaucer's time because she is a controlling, manipulative, know-it-all woman. Her personality and behavior both reflect the negative attributes that women were shamed for during that time. She is opinionated, dominate, and diabolical; all qualities that were not accepted easily in a woman. She defied the norm of that time.
Additionally, Wife of Bath’s idea and desire is for all women to achieve sovereignty which doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t favor men. As you can see, the Wife acts as a feminist here. Although, Alison wants to have the power in the relationship, she b...
The Pardoner does the opposite of that. When the Pardoner sells a pardon instead of giving the money to the church or donating it he keeps it for himself. This is totally against integrity and shows again why the Pardoner is not honest. Cheating is another word that is important with the word honesty because it is the opposite of it. To cheat someone is to wrong them with or without their knowledge. The Pardoner does this buy selling his so called “relics” when really they are just fake and he is just trying to get more money. As Chaucer (1476) himself said in the Pardoner’s prologue “he made the parson and the people his apes” (line 705). The Pardoner is a cheater and a scammer these are qualities that an honest person has, an example of an honest person is Abraham Lincoln, he was also sometimes referred to as “Honest Abe” or supposed honest
The Wife of Bath, therefore, can be seen as a woman who has taken her understanding of the teachings of the Bible, and held fast to certain notions that can help her succeed as a common person in a period where social position and wealth are usually a factor of birth, not personal effort. The notions of the right and freedom to make decisions, especially those regarding marriage and personal actions, allow her to travel, to have some nice possessions, and to become a strong, confident woman against the odds. Although she isn’t perfect, she has the desire, the underlying humility, and the understanding of how to be a better person—if only she had made that decision.
“The Wife if Bath’s Tale” is ultimately about power, specifically women wanting to have power over men, especially their husbands. Being the
The ’Wife of Bath’s Prologue’ raises the question of marriage. The marriage and the role of wife have momentous status in the Middle Ages. It embodies many patriarchal values which creates a full medieval culture and society. Lee Patterson argues that some historicist readings of Wife of Bath see medieval marriage as a thoroughly inhumane system, ”organized by males to serve economic and political ends, with the woman treated as a useful, child bearing appendage to the land or goods being exchanged.” (Beidle 138) This reading means that the marriage is no more as important, sacred and precious as people think that was to be at that time. It destroys the society, decreases the intimacy and highlights the importance of property and wealth in the Middle Ages. The Wife speaks about her memories of the past. She expresses nostalgia with her words. She tells that she has five husbands, three of them were old but rich and the other two are younger. On the one hand, the three older husbands provided her strong financial...
There are corrupt people all around, they hide in the world as best friends, boyfriends/girlfriends, relatives, acquaintances, preachers, and teachers. These people hide behind different personalities so they can be anyone they want to be. Corrupted souls can have many different motives, some want money, some want fame, some want sex. People who want money can deceive you into giving it to them, people who want fame do whatever they can to get noticed, and people who want sex pretend to love someone just to please themselves. They manipulate innocent people with good souls just for their own gain. In “The Pardoner’s Tale,” a story from The Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is about a corrupt clergyman who tells a tale for his own
Leicester, Jr., H. Marshall. "Public and Private Feminism in the Wife of Bath's Tale." Women's Studies 11.1-2 (1985): 157-78.
The Wife of Bath believes very strongly that the woman should be in charge in a marriage, and that any violence against women should lead to shame from the man. Not only does she discuss such things in her prologue but her tale centers around the theme the violence against women is a terrible thing and any man that believes it not so deserves to be punished. The Wife of Bath does not condone any violent acts against women, though her tale shows she believes that a man who is violent can learn to become a good husband is he acknowledges that the women should have the power in the relationship.
For the most part, the wife of Bath and the society viewed these ideas very similarly. The Wife of Bath just had stronger opinions about things that the society didn’t pay much attention to, like how the noblemen only saw the bad in the woman during sexual relations. The Wife of Bath Tale explained her opinions well and it shows that women during that time needed some power in marriages.
Thus one might conclude that perhaps all the previous husbands were a lie and that through her theatre, she was attempting to fantasize about reclaiming control over her life rather than giving in to her husband. This possible character of the wife of bath is more tragic yet somehow has roots of hypocrisy. This is the root of satire, but like all comedy this had an inkling of truth in it. The Wife of Bath could be making fun of feminist of their time, but he does seem to acknowledge that they did have a cause but it was mostly futile. For the reason that even though they were fighting for the progression of women in their age. Some women did not wish to be removed from their place in society, because it was comfortable and easy. So really what was the point of the movement if even the women that were supposed to be advanced? This hypocrisy is shown through the wife of Bath pompous conquering of her previous husbands, yet only happy with her fifth husband whom abused her as a result of her
In the tale the wife of bath, women all around the world long and desire many needs like rights or equal convenience but mostly they want sovereignty over men. Many reasons why women need jurisdiction over men is “Freedom to do exactly as they please”, “No one to reprove our faults and lies” and “rather to have one call us good or wise”. Women need respectful and equal contingency as men, so both of them can continue on and live amicable and ecstatic lives.
The Wife of Bath 's prologue and tale has a very personal authenticity to it. Although Geoffrey Chaucer is the author, the wife of Bath takes agency to talk about herself and her experiences. It is almost as if the wife speaks for him. The expectations of married women, at the time The Canterberry Tales were written, were to be modest, true and obedient wives. The wife of Bath, however, admits to using her own experiences as the source of her knowledge in marriage, and not the views of society. It is the fact that she relies on her internal thoughts and experiences that allows one to see her (and Chaucer 's) personal insight on the desires of married women. Although some may say that the wife of bath is simply looking for dominion over her husbands, Chaucer characterizes the wife of bath as a bold woman, and also uses the first person point of
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales follows the travels of twenty-nine men and women who are on a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury and back, with the purpose of visiting the shrine of Saint Thomas a Beckett. The group consists of people from three different estates, or social classes: the aristocracy, the clergy, and the working class. Chaucer illustrates a contradiction in the way certain classes should behave versus how some of his characters actually do behave. A character analysis of the squire from the aristocracy estate, the pardoner from the clergy estate, and the miller from the worker estate illustrate these dichotomous traits in moral fiber.
The prologue of this tale showed that the Wife of Bath was not seen as an upstanding woman, nor did she desire to be seen as one. She portrayed feminism, almost as soon as she began speaking in the prologue, she explained that she had gone through five husbands, and she was on the look out for a sixth. She also admitted that she married for money: "I’ll tell the truth. Those husbands I had, three of them were good and two of them bad. The three I call “good” were rich and old. They could indeed with difficulty hold the articles that bound them all to me” (Bath 263). She even went to the point of saying that she didn’t value her husbands’ love. Then again, why should she? She received what she wanted which was money, control, and anything that she desired, they provided. The Wife of Bath thought that all women needed to be the controlling factors in marriage. That is how she believed she would gain her husbands’ money. She claimed that if women can’t marry for money, they must marry for sex, for those are the only two things that really matter. Women must have control of their husbands, according to the Wife, and she is proud of the fact that she governed her husbands. If she had to put them in their place, she would make her husbands feel guilty, even if they had nothing to feel guilty about. The Wife exaggerated with her accusations, showin...