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Character of wife of bath
The wife of bath’s tale analysis
The connection between the wife of bath and her tale
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The beginning of this passage from the Wife of Bath 's Tale opens with the Wife of Bath describing how she holds a "mouses herte" that is of little value and worthless, "worth a leek." The Wife of Bath is portraying herself as fragile as a mouse, which is ironic considering she hopes for her husband 's to die in order to attain their assets. The genre is Romance, but this passage describes her marriages as false romances. There is trickery and deception involved with the Wife of Bath 's romances. This can be seen as she continues to explain that her “herte” has but “oon hole for to sterte to.” This is ironic because the Wife of Bath has had five husbands, so instead of "oon hole" that a wife should have to run to, the Wife of Bath has had extra …show more content…
The passage begins with Nicholas pondering out loud if the world will be lost soon, "Shal al the world be lost eftsoones now?" This is Nicholas acting to gain the attention of John, as he wants to trick John into believing him. Nicholas then tells John to "Fecche me drynke," and that after they will speak in private, "After wol i speke in pryvetee." The MED records the word "pryvetee" as private, it also means secret plan, or an affair. Ironically, this is what Nicholas and Alisoun are doing, they have made a secret plan that John is unaware of, and Alisoun is having an affair. Throughout the passage, there is a lexical set of words that resemble the concept of trickery and deception. These words are: "hendes," "pryvetee," "trouthe swere," "conseil," "lye," and "wreye." Through these words, Nicholas ' true motives are clear. He is not only tricking John, but he is also fooling Alisoun by confessing fake love just so that he can sleep with her. Nicholas is also fooling himself, as he is trying to play the figure of a divine messenger by falsely predicting the flood. He is claiming to be exposing Christ 's secrets, which he cannot know anyways, "For it is Cristes conseil that I seye." There is irony again when Nicholas tells John that "If thou wreye me, thou shalt be wood," and this is because Nicholas is the one who is doing the betraying. Nicholas tells John that he "wol nat lye," but he is deceiving John in every way possible. Nicholas is deceiving John because of his lust for Alisoun. Nicholas tell John that he has found out that there will be a big flood that will wipe out mankind, "Thus shal mankynde drenche, and lese hir lyf." As John is shocked about the news over the flood, he is truly only worried about what will happen to his wife, "This carpenter answerde, 'Allas, my wyf! And shal she drenche? Allas, myn Alisoun! ' For sorwe of this he fil
Nicholas is credited with devising the plan to fool the carpenter so he and Alisoun can be together; however, what sets off the chain of events in the latter part of the story is Alisoun’s trick on Absolon. When Absolon comes to court Alison, she says she will give him a kiss, but then, “And at the windowe out she putte hir hole, / And Absolon, him fil no bet ne wers, / But with his mouth he kiste hir naked ers, / Ful savourly, er he were war of this” (624). This spectacularly crude action goes beyond all rules of social propriety and demonstrates her desire to not be typecast as a traditional woman. Moreover, it illustrates her ability to reject a suitor. Unlike the Wife of Bath, who accepts multiple suitors, Alisoun has a very clear idea of who she does and does not want to be with. Additionally, her choice between Nicholas and Absolon also demonstrates her ability to break away from traditional social expectations. When the Miller describes Nicholas, he states, “This clek was cleped hende Nicholas. / Of derne love he coude, and of solas, / And thereto he was sly and ful of privee” (91-112). He is a cunning and sly astrology student, while on the other hand, Absolon is a parish clerk and belongs to the institution of the Church. Nicholas’ rebellious and Absolon’s traditional
The main theme of the Wife of baths tale is the two of the seven deadly sins “lust and greed”.
The use of euphemism and crudeness in “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” is simultaneously unnerving and amusing, and begs the question of how a “wicked” woman like The Wife could ever actually progress in medieval society. Chaucer incorporates subtle allusions to female sexual organs and it is this bluntness (that would raise eyebrows even today) which establishes the Wife as such a powerfully outspoken character. Because courtship in Chaucer’s time was considered worthy of complete submission, the fact that the Wife places such emphasis on domination and even psychological power hints at her being an object of irony (and not a feminist figure “before her time”). It is for this reason that Chaucer’s delicate use of “queynte”- a term from which
As the Miller's tale progresses this exposition of jealousy is shown to have a good cause. Because the wife is young and desirable she is seen as unable to resist the advances of an equally young scholar, “while her husband was at Osney / (these clerks are very subtle and sly) / and privily he grabbed her by the crotch” (line 87-89). The clerk forces himself upon Alison, “and said, Unless I have my will of you, / sweetheart, I'm sure to die for suppressed love” (lines 91-92). Alison being so young and inexperienced is unable to resist the urges of the clerk Nicholas, “and made her oath, by Saint Thomas a Becket, / that she would be his to command (lines 105-106).
When we consider that Chaucer chose his pilgrims with careful precision to present a cross section of late-medireview society, the small number of women travellers can be seen as a clear reminder of the patriarchal culture in which the Wife existed. Nevertheless, despite Alisoun's vigorous assault on 'olde and angry nigardes' she is the first to recognise the political ascendancy of men. Her prologue is peppered with allusions to great biblical patriarchs such as Abraham and Jacob:
In “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath challenges the oppressive standards women are expected to uphold and asserts her agency by reassessing women’s public and interpersonal roles. However, rather than naively disregarding the influence of gender constructs, the wife manipulates the “limitations” that binary oppositions create for her gender in order to dominate the skill of persuasion. Through the careful use of language, the Wife of Bath exploits societal standards placed upon females in order to reconstruct women’s role within her culture and the institution of marriage. In particular, the Wife argues that her opinions should be regarded because her amount of marriage experience undermines authority. By invoking experience over authority, the Wife is able to disguise her domineering arguments, references, and ethics as informed opinions rather than efforts to overturn masculine supremacy. Although her scandalous actions and suggestions within her prologue and tale are seen as distasteful by many of the pilgrims, she still seemingly adheres to the customs appropriated for her gender. She is able to re-interpret said customs through the manipulation of semantics, and in doing so she successfully overturns patriarchal power. By working the system to her advantage, the Wife of Bath contests for the re-evaluation of the power dynamics within marriage.
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 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.
Women in the medieval times were cast into very distinct roles. There was a strict code of conduct that was followed. They were to be submissive to their husbands and follow their lead. A woman’s place was also in the home and the responsibilities of cooking, cleaning, sewing, etc. fell into their domain. Women who deviated from these cultural-set norms made for interesting characters. Chaucer’s use of women and their overstepping their boundaries and typical roles in society make them most memorable.
In the Middle Ages, the roles of women became less restricted and confined and women became more opinionated and vocal. Sir Gawain and The Green Knight presents Lady Bertilak, the wife of Sir Bertilak, as a woman who seems to possess some supernatural powers who seduces Sir Gawain, and Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale, present women who are determined to have power and gain sovereignty over the men in their lives. The female characters are very openly sensual and honest about their wants and desires. It is true that it is Morgan the Fay who is pulling the strings in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight; nevertheless the Gawain poet still gives her a role that empowers her. Alison in The Wife if Bath Prologue represents the voice of feminism and paves the way for a discourse in the relationships between husbands and wives and the role of the woman in society.
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
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.
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.
In The Canterbury Tales Wife of Bath’s Tale, the author incorporates major events in the text that relate to power in many different ways. In addition, in the text the author illustrates the sovereignty that women have over man in various ways. Furthermore, there is power in knowledge because with knowledge there is freedom. Also, in the text a character loses power over the external events that occurring in their lives. In The Wife of Bath’s Tale, the author illustrates a woman’s power through authority, marriage, and punishment.
Chaucer: Wife of Bath In the Wife of Bath, the Wife’s prologue is very lengthy and has information about her life. The prologue explains the wife’s theories about experience versus authority. The wife of Bath already has five husbands, which means she has enough experience in marriage to make her an expert. She is not ashamed of her life or marriage and feels she should not be criticized for her behavior. The wife references several biblical quotes to justify her views and explains she does not feel God should punish those who marry more than once.