The Wife Of Bath In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

Feminist Simone de Beauvoir pointed out that, “Man is defined as a human being and a woman as a female - whenever she behaves as a human being she is said to imitate the male.”(Simone de Beauvoir) Men, who used to bear the economic burden for the whole family, look down upon women. Nevertheless, the Wife of Bath, written by Geoffrey Chaucer in The Canterbury Tales, boldly speaks out every women’s mind that women intend to be the controllers of men in marriage. The wife of Bath shows her frankness based on knowledge and experiences toward what is wrong; she shows her courage to challenge men’s power; and she shows her determination in standing against the Church for freedom to marry. Geoffrey Chaucer, a man who writes the Wife of Bath from a

In the prolog, the wife of Bath has already left a deep impression on reader’s mind. Among the many pilgrims, not only her appearance but also her behavior has turned out to be eccentric and causal. Based on Chaucer’s description, the wife of Bath gives readers a feeling that she is neither beautiful nor noble as a young lady in the upper class, but she possesses a specific temperament to be level with men. What exactly makes the wife of Bath such a frank person has nothing to do with her wealth or appearance. Rather, it is education and experience that allow her to see through the world and respond to it. As expected, she gains the majority of knowledge from traveling to different countries and marrying five husbands. While summing up the experiences with her five husbands, the wife of Bath, in a way, is able to tear off men’s hypocritical mask and reveals their true character. Moreover, the wife of Bath repeats over and over again that “she knows well”. She, as an educated person, has read the Bible. Compared to pilgrims in church, the only person she could believe is herself, explaining that “People may guess and interpret the text up and down but I know well, without a doubt, God babe us expressly to increase and multiple; that pleasant text I can well understand.”(291) In other words, she uses “interpret” and “guess” to criticize the Church and people in the Church either pilgrims or priests for corruption and disrespect to the Bible. She understands everything “that the Apostle, when he spoke of maidenhood, said that he had no commandment for it.”(293) Even though she could tell the right from wrong, this is definitely not enough. Fearless of death, she comes through other women, arguing how her thought is opposed to the world. Thus, it is so obvious to distinguish her from other women as a trustworthy role