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Women importance in literature paper
Female roles in medieval literature
Women's roles in medieval literature
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(This has 4 examples. Pls lemme know which example is bad so I can get rid of one)
The Wife of Bath has a very negative view of women because she shows how women misuse their power given to them. She depicts women as being manipulative and always placing the blame on others. The Wife of Bath “wrecked [her husbands’] peace, innocent as they were, without remorse! For [she] could bite and whinney like a horse and launch complaints when things were all [her] fault”(268-269). She shows how women are not strong enough to accept their own faults; therefore, they take advantage of their youth given by God, and attack old, innocent men. Moreover, in her tale, the Wife of Bath shows how the old woman takes advantage of her power to make the knight
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Instead, she could have shown her youth, which would have made the knight happy, but purposely chose to upset the knight. This basically portrays women as an obstacle for men who serve to annoy men. In addition, the Wife of Bath plays dead after her husband hits her to get property back. After getting her husband to the point of begging to her to forgive him, she makes a deal with him and says “but in the end we made it together. He gave me the bridle over to my hand, gave me the government of house and land”(280). Her husband had given her all the power through his pleading and rather than set him straight by teaching him not to be misogynistic, she is greedy and asks for all her property back. Finally, the Wife of Bath shows how the queen misused her power to foolishly decide the knight’s destiny. After much pleading to receive power over the knight’s life, the king eventually gives the queen the final authority. However, rather than give a fair test to decide the knight’s fate, she asks him a simple question, “ What is the thing women most desire?”(282). This act by the queen does not give proper justice to either the knight or the
They are both told in ways that show differences between the husband and wife’s gender roles in a relationship and sovereignty. In the Wife of Bath’s “General Prologue”, Chaucer describes the wife differently than other characters to make her stand out and to draw the attention of his audience into the story. He describes the Wife as a self-confident, independent women who thinks highly of herself. The Wife of Bath’s independence and sovereignty over herself is what the Tale of the Wife of Bath is revolved around. Her previous marriages not only show off how scandalous she is, but they portray the idea that “romance is also about domination in regard to gender roles” (Sterling). The Tale reflects around the Wife’s personality in that it illustrates the idea of independence in women and brings to the audience what is almost a feminist story depicting sovereignty and power. Her occupation is what makes the Wife so respectable throughout her life, giving her a high social status and a high place in society. Power, one of the many themes in the Tale, is shown throughout the entire tale and has a significant meaning to the overall moral of the story. In the beginning of the Tale, a knight deprives a fair maiden of the power over her own body. When he goes on his journey to discover what women most desire, which happens to be power, he comes across a situation that deprives power
The Wife of Bath is a complex character-she is different from the way she represents herself. Maybe not even what she herself thinks she is. On the surface, it seems as though she is a feminist, defending the rights and power of women over men. She also describes how she dominates her husband, playing on a fear that was common to men. From a point of view of a man during that time period, she seemed to illustrate all of the wrongs that men found in women. Such as a weak parody of what men, then saw as feminists. The Wife of Bath constantly emphasizes the negative implications of women throughout the ages. She describes women as greedy, controlling, and dishonest.
Through the help of an old woman described as a “fouler-looking creature (Chaucer, 285)” by making a deal that he would do anything she required of him, the knight was able to give the correct answer to the Queen’s question. According to the knight, as told by the old woman, what a woman desires most is “ the self-same sovereignty / Over her husband as over her lover, / And master him; he must not be above her (Chaucer, 286).” Thus, the Queen declared the knight freedom from the punishment of death, while he was forced to accept the old woman’s request for his hand in marriage. While not a formal punishment, it was “torture that his wife looked foul (Chaucer, 287).” This punishment of marriage, however, to an old, “‘abominably plain,’” “‘poor,’” and “‘low-bred’” woman was only temporal. In order to “‘fufil [the knight’s] worldly appetites, she presents the anguished knight a choice on whether she remains old and ugly, but loyal or young and pretty, but attractive to other men. Rather than making the choice that pleased him, the knight left the choice up to the old woman saying “‘You may make the choice yourself, for the provision / Of what may be agreeable and rich / In honour to us both, I don’t care which; / Whatever pleases you suffices me (Chaucer, 291).” Happy to have been given a choice, the old
... maiden, the knight is turned into the hero of the tale, with the reader hoping for a happy ending for him. "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale" can be seen as both a legend of women's empowerment as well as a reminder of the struggles women encountered daily.
THE WIFE OF BATH In the “Wife of Bath’s Prologue,” she begins her introduction by telling the other pilgrims that she has experience because she has been married five times. She believes more in experience rather than in written authority (that is, in texts written by men). The Wife of Bath argues with virginity: “Where can ye saye in any manner that hye God defended marriage by expression? I praye you, telleth me.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem, The Canterbury Tales, contains a character that is read by some as “the epitome of the modern feminist,... takes on the men at their own game of name-dropping, and refuses to be silenced by the patriarchal powers that be” (Evans, Ruth, and Johnson 1). The Wife of Bath contains all the negative stereotypes of women portrayed by men of the Medieval time period, such as being a chatterbox and promiscuous. Which greatly contrasts the other fictional women of her time, who were silent and suppressed in literature. The Wife’s argument “offered a defence of women against their misogynist critics” (Rigby 137) of the Medieval Age. Presented as a critic who beats males at their own game, and gives her the authoritative stance
In the Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer the story tells about men and women going on pilgrimages, among them the Wife of Bath in search of her 6th husband, who go on a journey to pay their respect to Sir Thomas á Becket. During the story the Wife of Bath strongly expresses herself as a very strong woman and knows what she expects with the men shes with. As well as this, with all her beauty and respect she was given in life the Wife of Bath displays herself highly. Finally, she ideals her actions with the knowledge she knows from the Bible. Therefore, because of her control, beauty, and knowledge the Wife of Bath is a woman that most women would look up to.
Woman in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” compared to the women in Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight shows a progress or a power shift between men and women. When the knight sees the old lady and asks her for her help, she’s the only one who has that power to help save him. Now in terms of power, the old lady and the Wife differ in how they show their power. For example, The Wife in the prologue, she talks about her having five husbands and is looking for the sixth one and how her husband who “shal be bothe my dettour and my thral / And have his tribulacion withal / Upon his flesh whil that I am his wif.” (shall be both my debtor and my slave / And bear his tribulation to the grave / Upon his flesh, as long as I’m his wife) (The Wife of Bath’s Prologue 161-163) and even how she “have the
One of the most interesting and widely interpreted characters in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is the Wife of Bath. She has had five different husbands and openly admits to marrying the majority of them for their money. The wife appears to be more outspoken and independent than most women of medieval times, and has therefore been thought to symbolize the cause of feminism; some even refer to her as the first actual feminist character in literature. Readers and scholars probably argue in favor of this idea because in The Canterbury Tales, she uniquely gives her own insight and opinions on how relations between men and women should be carried out. Also, the meaning of her tale is that virtually all women want to be granted control over themselves and their relationship with their husbands, which seems to convince people that the Wife of Bath should be viewed as some sort of revolutionary feminist of her time. This idea, however, is incorrect. The truth is that the Wife of Bath, or Alisoun, merely confirms negative stereotypes of women; she is deceitful, promiscuous, and clandestine. She does very little that is actually empowering or revolutionary for women, but instead tries to empower herself by using her body to gain control over her various husbands. The Wife of Bath is insecure, cynical towards men in general, and ultimately, a confirmation of misogynistic stereotypes of women.
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a story about a widow who took a pilgrimage to the town of Canterbury with an array of dynamic characters whose diverse backgrounds allowed them to share their stories with one another to make the long journey more interesting. The widow named Alisoun in the “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” told the tale of her experiences with her five past husbands and a story about a knight and a witch. She truly believed that for a woman to have a happy life she would need to gain dominion over a man; however one could assume this was programmed into her by her influential mother and her own religious doctrines. Accordingly, Alisoun argued that the woman must control everything in order to have a happy marriage; however, her life experience and the story she shared should tell her otherwise.
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...
In the Middle Ages, when The Canterbury Tales was written, society became captivated by love and the thought of courtly and debonair love was the governing part of all relationships and commanded how love should be conducted. These principles changed literature completely and created a new genre dedicated to brave, valorous knights embarking on noble quests with the intention of some reward, whether that be their life, lover, or any other want. The Canterbury Tales, written in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer, accurately portrays and depicts this type of genre. Containing a collection of stories within the main novel, only one of those stories, entitled “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, truly outlines the 14th century community beliefs on courtly love.
The world-renowned Canterbury Tales by the great Geoffrey Chaucer aims to magnify the controversial social injustices of gender roles in the medieval time period that consequently flow into today’s current modern society. One of the greatest social standing issues addressed throughout the poem includes the institution of marriage, and the particular viewpoint held by the character named the Wife of Bath. The Wife of Bath is notably shamed by her potential suitors and moralist peers, for her devious actions of taking advantage of her former husbands throughout her lengthy five marriages. However, Chaucer actually invites the audience to give a closer look at the overall flawed instuition of marriage
In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chaucer opens describing twenty-nine people who are going on a pilgrimage. Each person has a dissimilar personality that we can recognize from the way people behave today. He creates The Wife of Bath to stand out more compared to the other characters that are involved in these stories. In Chaucer’s “General Prologue,” the Wife of Bath was described as a woman who was intentionally described in an obvious way to provoke a shocking response. The Wife carries a lot of experience with things; she is a worldly person and has experience in the ways of the world in a sense of love and sex. Her clothes, physical features and references to her past are intentionally discussed by Chaucer causing the reader to wonder how well she is such a flamboyant and extravagant character. She shows off her clothes with evident pride, her face is wreathed in heavy cloth, her stockings are a fine scarlet color, and the leather in her shoed is soft and fresh. Her clothing symbolizes to the reader that she is not fearful or shy, and also shows off her expertise as a weaver.
The Wife of Bath is a wealthy and elegant woman with extravagant, brand new clothing. She is from Bath, a key English cloth-making town in the Middle Ages, making her a talented seam stress. Before the wife begins her tale, she informs the audience about her life and personal experience on marriage, in a lengthy prologue. The Wife of Bath initiates her prologue by declaring that she has had five husbands, giving her enough experience to make her an expert on marriage. Numerous people have criticized her for having had many husbands, but she does not see anything immoral about it. Most people established negative views on her marriages, based on the interpretation of what Christ meant when he told a Samaritan woman that her fifth husband was not her husband. To support her situation, the Wife introduced a key figure that had multiple wives: King Solomon.