Summary: The knight comes across a beautiful lady one day and rapes her. The court is disgusted by this and says he should get the death penalty. King Arthur and the queen decide that he should not be killed, and they make a deal with the knight. The queen says that if he can find within a year what most women want, he can keep his life. He finally meets the Wife of Bath, and she says that most women want to be secretive. She argues with this though, because women cannot keep a secret. Later on, the knight meets and ugly old woman and she claims that she can save his life. Judgment day has come, and he tells the queen that most women desire to be in charge of their husbands and lovers. The women in the court agree, and the queen spares …show more content…
Arveragus goes to England for two years and Dorigen becomes very depressed and lonely. She decides to get out of the house one day with friends, and she meets Aurelius, the most handsome man, who has loved her for two years. He confesses his love for her, and she says she will accept his love if he removes all the rocks from the coast; this task is nearly impossible. He gets sick, and he promises to the student magician that he will pay 1,000 pounds to clear the coast of rocks. The task is finished, he approaches Dorigen, and she cannot believe it. She is horrified and when her husband finally comes home, she tells him the deal she made with Aurelius. He did not know that Dorigen was married to Arveragus, so he gives her …show more content…
They rent a room to a boy named Nicholas, and he is quickly attracted to Alison. She rejects him at first, but then she falls for him and they decide to trick John. A few days later at church, and man named Absolon immediately falls in love with Alison. He tries to win her by singing songs, acting in plays, and buying her gifts but she cannot be with him because she is already involved with Nicholas. Alison tells John that Nicholas is very sick, so John sends his servant to check on him. Nicholas tells John that he had vision from God about how a huge flood is coming and to build three boats. All three of them go into the hanging boats but as soon as John falls asleep, Alison and Nicholas sneak off to have sex. The same night, Absolon comes to her window and begs for her love. She sticks her butt out of the window and Absolon is furious. Nicholas tries to get in on the joke, and Absolon accidentally brands him with a hot poker. John heard Nicholas scream “Water!” and thought the flood was coming, so he cut the rope that was holding him and he fell to the ground. Nicholas, Alison, and all the townspeople laugh at
On their way home from school Jenny and Willie hook up. Then on the weekend, Jenny, Johnny, Willie and his family decide to go to the lake. Willie and Jenny set the table for a picnic when Johnny is out skiing. Willies mom complains about him never being safe enough. Next it is Willie's turn to water-ski. As Willie was doing a 360° turn, he caught the tips of his skis under the water and he crashed. Willies dad was in shock, Jenny had to give Willie mouth to mouth, and save his life. The left the boat, got into the vehicle, and drove to the hospital. Willie ends up with a speech impediment, and problems walking. He ends up doing crazy things, like acid, and drinking. He talks to a counselor whom he really likes. Willie does not want to go into a Special Ed class that the school is referring him to. He feels hopeless, and even jealous of his girlfriend for her athletics. He tries to play racquetball, but his dad gets frustrated with him. That night he hears his parents arguing over him. He hears his dad say that he thinks it would have been easier if Willie had died in the accident. From there he suspects Jenny and Petey of getting together, and finds out that they are.
In the story of Dame Ragnell and "The Wife of Bath's Tale," the men in question are in a very serious predicament. The knight in "The Wife of Bath's Tale" gets into his predicament by raping a young maiden. In "Dame Ragnell," King Arthur is accused of giving Sir Gawain land that belongs to someone else, Gromer Somer Joure. Their crimes are completely different, yet they still warrant similar punishment. Although the reason that each character is in his situation is a glaring difference between the two stories, in both cases the character's lives are at stake because of something they have done. In order to be saved from death they must answer a question: "To shewe me at thy coming whate wemen love best in feld and town." (Ragnell 91-92) This is what King Arthur is asked by Gromer Somer Joure in the story of Dame Ragnell. In "The Wife of Bath's Tale," we can see the question is worded differently. The Queen says to the knight: "I graunte thee lif if thou canst tellen me what thing it is that wommen most desiren." (Bath 910-911) Although there is a slight difference in the wording of the question in each tale, each still has the same idea: What is it that women want the most? In both stories the main characters, the knight, in "The Wife of Bath's Tale" and King Arthur in, the story of Dame Ragnell, search out the answer to this question.
... she responded in the fullest measure With all that could delight or give him pleasure.” Basically the Knight got a beautiful on the inside and out woman and wife. He never really got punished like he should’ve for raping that woman. In a way this seems to be mocking rape that solving a stupid question could get a man a beautiful wife and out of a crime he committed. He should’ve been killed in the very beginning of the story.
A relationship is usually seen between the teller of a tale and the tale that he or she decides to share. Chaucer’s pilgrim, the Merchant, uses his feelings on marriage to teach a lesson in his tale. The Wife of Bathe also relies on her life experience to tell her tale. The two relationships in the tales can then be compared.
Looking back through many historical time periods, people are able to observe the fact that women were generally discriminated against and oppressed in almost any society. However, these periods also came with women that defied the stereotype of their sex. They spoke out against this discrimination with a great amount of intelligence and strength with almost no fear of the harsh consequences that could be laid out by the men of their time. During the Medieval era, religion played a major role in the shaping of this pessimistic viewpoint about women. The common belief of the patriarchal-based society was that women were direct descendants of Eve from The Bible; therefore, they were responsible for the fall of mankind. All of Eve’s characteristics from the biblical story were believed to be the same traits of medieval women. Of course, this did not come without argument. Two medieval women worked to defy the female stereotype, the first being the fictional character called The Wife of Bath from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The second woman, named Margery Kempe, was a real human being with the first English autobiography written about her called The Book of Margery Kempe. In these two texts, The Wife of Bath and Margery Kempe choose to act uniquely compared to other Christians in the medieval time period because of the way religion is interpreted by them. As a result, the women view themselves as having power and qualities that normal women of their society did not.
Chaucer’s Use of Satire (An in depth analysis into the General Prologue, Pardoner's Tale, and the Wife of Bath.) What does it mean for literature to be characterized as a type of satire? According to Oxford Dictionaries, “Satire, is the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.” There are countless examples of how satire has enabled great writers to achieve their ultimate goals. In fact, many of the modern stories and works of literature that we study, have, in one way or another, some type of satire.
Although both John and Nicholas succeed in having Alison in their own way, John’s trusting and innocent love for Alison contrasts with that of Nicholas’ deceitful and selfish lust, emphasizing the effectiveness of cleverness over morality. In order to arrange an opportunity to sleep with Alison, Nicholas devises a plan that takes advantage of John’s stupid and gullible nature by pretending to foretell the coming of a catastrophic flood, to which John responds, “Alas, my wife! And shall she drown?
It’s clear the wife enjoys hearing herself and fishing for a good argument, but she’s, rather, more clever than scholarly. This is because, when it comes to her feminist point of view, she believes her own experiences to be more accurate than a scholarly diatribe. Put simply, she finds that her experiences give her knowledge and knowledge is power. With this we can see a direct relation to the tales theme of power when the Knight seeks knowledge from the old hag. The Knight has the daunting task of answering the biggest question known to men. As Sigmund Freud has put so well, it is to answer "The great question that has never been answered, and which I have not yet been able to answer, despite my thirty years of research into the feminine soul, is 'What does a woman want?'”(Sigmund Freud, 1953) And when the knight receives his answer and returns to court, the two themes are reinforced because “Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee” (line 1038). Looking deeper into the meaning of the prologue and tale, we see that this is in fact the
In the tale that Geoffrey Chaucer had wrote, The Wife of Bath’s Tale, a man was described as a Knight. This Knight wasn’t like any normal Knight, he messed up and raped a girl. This is a big mistake, giving a lot of Knights a bad name, and having those that look up to them start to be disappointed in them. Usually the punishment that is given to those that rape, or in general any other crime, is death or time in the slammer, however, the Queen says no because he is a good looking guy. Instead of death, he had find out what women most desire from men. He is given a year and a day to find out, and on the last day, when he nearly had given up all hope, he sees an old woman in a field who makes a deal with him. The old lady gives the Knight a choice: to have an old, but faithful, wife, or to have a drop-dead gorgeous woman, but to have her never to be faithful, before she tells him what the Queen wants to know. The old lady and Knight get married and she wants him to sleep with her, like husbands are supposed to do with their wives. They argue and she gives him the two choices again; to have an ugly wife, but she is faithful. The other choice is to have a drop-dead gorgeous wife, but is never faithful. With this, he learns a lesson, and sufficient punishment.
The Eve of St. Agnes certainly progresses and ends like a romance. Porphyro, a willful
In the Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chaucer illustrates the different perspective between men and women on the concept of marriage and love. In The Wife of Bath’s tale, it is shown the woman appreciating marriage and wanting to be able to love a man unconditionally as where in The Miller’s Tale, love isn’t anything, but sex with the man in the story. In accordance with Chaucer, the complication with marriage is that men are consumed by sexual desire and are easily abused by women like The Wife of Bath. As noticed, The Miller’s Tale is all about adultery. “Just like men, the wives have secrets, as does God”, says the Miller. Both have information that the other do not know about that are sacred and better left unsaid.
... beloved wife has made the decision for him. After going through this incredible journey of his, not only did he study women but he had to explain what women most desired to the queen. Otherwise he would have been beheaded, but was spared because of his looks. Was this justice? Indeed it would have been justice back in the 1300’s because if you were beautiful you could be spared and do a noble deed for the king/queen as they asked. If you did not complete it who knows what could have happened. But for the knight, he completed what he was told to do and in fact after he raped the woman and he was being prosecuted, the journey of his made him find the true knight inside of him. The old woman choice that was offer to the knight demonstrated that he learned his lesson through his sufficient punishment and redemption for his crime.
The wife of bath strongly argued in favour of female “maistrye.” She argued this in the prologue and used the tale to bring the message home. Her arguments are weakened however by the destructive and careless behaviour of the Wife of Bath. She openly laughs at them (“I laugh whan I thinke”) when she thinks of how she made her husbands toil at night. She doesn’t seem to regret the...
King Arthur has a rapist in his court. A young good looking knight rapes an innocent maiden. The knight is said to be put to death by decapitation. The queen and other ladies intervene and come up with a different plan for punishment. The Queen would like to send the knight on a challenge. She wants him to find out what a woman wants most in the world. If the knight cannot figure the correct answer out in one year he shall be decapitated.
“Hello? The handsome knight is over here! Don’t forget about your son and brother,” Connor butted in. The mother and daughter laughed and let him join their hug. “You know,” he said, “Beaty might be a powerful wizard, but I’m still the ladies’ man!”