Questionable Decisions by the Wife of Bath
In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer creates a wonderfully complex character in the Wife of Bath. She exhibits many traits easily identifiable as virtuous--honesty, cheerfulness, and the desire to follow the teachings of the Bible. At other times she reveals traits easily perceived as negative--greed, cruelty, and promiscuity. By the end of her tale to the other pilgrims, more light is shed on her character when it becomes apparent that her tale parallels certain aspects of her own life. Understanding the Wife of Bath’s motivations for her actions through the tale provides an explanation, and, from a sympathetic point of view, an excuse for her negative behavior. Through the voice of the old hag giving the knight two choices, the Wife of Bath highlights an issue that has been central to the formation of her own moral character. She strongly believes that God gave her the freedom of choice, and she is taking that freedom to make decisions in her own best interest. Her decisions and resulting behavior, although morally questionable, are the result of her attempts to rise above her station in life.
Evidence of this freedom of choice is shown when the old hag in the tale poses this question to the knight: “You have two choices; which one will you try” (Chaucer 291)? In addition to pointing out his right to choose, the question contains the interesting word “try” instead of “choose”. “Try” implies the possibility of making the wrong decision. This word choice indicates that the Wife of Bath understands that not all decisions are the right ones.
Whether the choices she makes are truly moral is the question that leads to a deeper understanding of her character.
The options gi...
... middle of paper ...
...t be above her” (286).
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.
Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Prologue” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” The Canterbury Tales. Trans. Nevill Coghill. New York: Penguin, 1977.Corinthians, Book 1, 7:39.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Wife of Bath's Tale." Canterbury Tales. McDougal Littell Literature British Literature, 2012. Print. 180-192.
In conclusion, so long as immigrants with legal or illegal status, continue to pay taxes on income and contribute to Social Security, they should have health care rights. Based on the evidence provided, and proven by research, to extend current health care benefits to this population would only serve to benefit both the immigrant and native born populations. Our ethical responsibilities are mandated by our laws and have been outlined in this report.
The dominance of men in the Middle Ages is unethical, irrational, and dangerous; women are given few rights and the opportunity to earn rights is non-existent. The dictates to the dominance is formed by the internal combination of man’s personal desire and religious interference. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s, The Canterbury Tales, the combined perspectives’ on a haughty Pardoner and non-subservient wife is the stronghold of separation in moral roles. The moral roles between men and women are exemplified in the rankings of religious hierarchy for men are at the top and women towards the bottom. Even prestigious women, ones with noble connections, are subservient to men, but contradictorily have religious affiliations. The “Wife of Bath’s Tale” is a perfect example of defying man’s dominance and the “Pardoner’s Tale”, a problematic reasoning of why selfishness connects moreover to the manipulation. The frailties of religious reasoning however, will cause The Pardoner and the Wife of Bath to be separated from society’s morals.
"The Wife of Bath's Prologue." The Canterbury Tales. New York: Viking, 2009. . Web. Jan. & Feb. 2012.
While many factors can be reported to showcase the reasons why an individual would be led to such violence, ethology remains the single most accurate theory in explaining the many facets of gang violence by showing the parallels between animal behavior and the lifestyle of gang members. Ethology also attempts to explain the violence exhibited by humans as corresponding to violence displayed by animals. For predatory animals, violence is necessary for survival and adaptation to the surroundings is vital. Genetically humans are closest to chimpanzees, which “routinely engage in murder, assassination, rape, raid...
Urrutia-Rojas, X., Marshall, K., Trevino, E., Lurie, S. G., & Minguia-Bayona, G. (2006). Disparities in access to health care and health status between documented and undocumented Mexican immigrants in North Texas. Hispanic Health Care International , 4 (1), 5-14.
The Wife of Bath, with the energy of her vernacular and the voraciousness of her sexual appetite, is one of the most vividly developed characters of 'The Canterbury Tales'. At 856 lines her prologue, or 'preambulacioun' as the Summoner calls it, is the longest of any of the pilgrims, and matches the General Prologue but for a few lines. Evidently Chaucer is infatuated with Alisoun, as he plays satirically with both gender and class issues through the Wife's robust rhetoric. Scholars and students alike have continued this obsession with her, and as a consequence Chaucer's larger than life widow has been subject to centuries of scrutiny. Indeed, she is in the vast minority amongst the Canterbury bound pilgrims; apart from the in-vogue Prioress she is the only female - though she appears in no way daunted by the apparent inequality in numbers. It seems almost a crime to examine masculinity in her prologue and tale, but as I hope to show, there is much to learn both about the Wife and about Chaucer from this male presence.
Individuals conceived between the years of 1980 and 2000, as indicated by this article, experience serious difficulties finding their actual self due to the online networking outlets; they regularly depict another person life of a fantasy dream American life on the web. As today’s more youthful era makes the transition to adulthood, trying to accommodate between online and offline characters can be hard. “Van den Bergh asked 4,056 individuals, ages 15 to 25, when they felt they were or weren't being genuine online or logged off, with companions, folks, accomplices or employers.” Through this research he found,
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale.” From The Riverside Chaucer, Third Edition. Ed. Larry D. Benson. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
In modern times, illegal immigrants cost taxpayers billions of dollars each year. Immigrants of every kind use welfare to get by, which happens to be a main cause for the sudden rise in tax expenses. Illegal immigrants have a higher welfare use rate at 57 percent than native households in the sense of food stamps and Medicaid, but lower in the case of cash programs at just 23 percent. Because of this, restrictions on government benefits are not enforced, as they should be. Another problem is the way food stamps are handled when it comes to illegal immigrants. Companies responsible for food stamps sympathize with these people because they happen to be “vulnerable” to the plight of applying for these benefits. Food stamps are no longer seen as helping poor families receive proper nutrition because illegal immigrants have taken advantage, causing the companies to feed off of their dependency instead of those actually in need, such as poor families and the elderly. Illegal immigrants are not eligible for any assistance regarding healthcare, and therefore cannot get federal subsidies to buy health insurance or shop for coverage. However, nonprofit groups are beginning to see through this, and are offering medical care to illegal immigrants. While I firmly believe that everyone deserves medical treatment to recover from injuries or illnesses, this is another major reason as to why the cost of
In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, a reader is introduced to a rather bizarre and heterogeneous group of people leaving for a pilgrimage. The Wife of Bath is the most interesting and lively character of the group. Her "Prologue" and "Tale" provide readers with a moral lesson as well as comic relief. The Wife's "Prologue" serves as an overture to her "Tale", in which she states a very important point regarding the nature of women and their most sacred desires. According to this character, women desire sovereignty, or power, over their men most in the world. This wish seems to be most appropriate for women of the time period in which Chaucer lived. However, women today no longer wish to dominate their men - sovereignty of women over men is not relevant in the twenty-first century. The reason is that women are no longer deprived of power and freedom.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue.” The Canterbury Tales. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2000. 87-98.
In the “Wife of Bath’s Prologue” and Margery Kempe women are empowered to make decisions regarding their own sexuality. This deviates from the gender constructs of the time period by allowing these women to dictate the course of their own lives: the Wife of Bath chooses to use her sexuality to acquire money and possessions, while Margery Kempe dedicates her sexuality to her spiritual beliefs. By working strategically to gain sexual independence both women move beyond the generally accepted position of a women at the time.
Turkle, S. (1995). Life on the Screen: Identity in the age of the Internet. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
As a man fascinated with the role of women during the 14th Century, or most commonly known as the Middle Ages, Chaucer makes conclusive evaluations and remarks concerning how women were viewed during this time period. Determined to show that women were not weak and humble because of the male dominance surrounding them, Chaucer sets out to prove that women were a powerful and strong-willed gender. In order to defend this argument, the following characters and their tales will be examined: Griselda from the Clerk's Tale, and the Wife of Bath, narrator to the Wife of Bath's Tale. Using the role of gender within the genres of the Canterbury Tales, exploring each woman's participation in the outcomes of their tales, and comparing and contrasting these two heroines, we will find out how Chaucer broke the mold on medievalist attitudes toward women.