The Wife of Bath
In the "Wife of Bath's Prologue," she tells the other pilgrims that she has much experience since she has been married five times. She believes in experience rather than in writing. We can see this in the quotation: "Who painted the leon, tel me who? By God, if wommen hadden writen stories, As clerks han within hir oratories, They wolde had writen of men more wikkednesse Than al th merk of Adam may redresse." [Norton, 132] She is very upset about the painting of a man killing a lion. Her fifth husband always reads his book about wicked wives, and he amuses himself by telling her the stories; however, she doesn't like this. She is beautiful, powerful, energetic and relies on her experience, not on any writings or paintings.
To highlight her strong and powerful appearance, she wears characteristic clothes. She puts strikingly big kerchiefs on her head, which seem to weigh about ten pounds, and she wears scarlet red stockings. She also wears a hat, and it is as broad as a buckler. Garters hold her red stockings, and her shoes are soft and new. There is a pair of sharpened spurs on her feet. This probably tells us that she has had many experiences with all husbands in her life. She wears a long wide skirt. Her face is as bold as her character is, fair complexioned, and red. On the journey, she walks slowly and sits down easily. Overall, she has been respectable throughout her life. Chaucer also describes her as being deaf in one ear with a gap tooth.
It was very rare for a woman in the fourteenth century to travel as a pilgrim, talk about her experiences and thoughts in public and to be married five times. The Wife of Bath is an independent and powerful woman. She strongly believes in herself and in experience rather than in written authority, which are the texts written by men. She feels this way more after she marries her fifth husband. Her fifth husband always reads a book about wicked wives. He wants to control her; however, she doesn't like it. Therefore she takes a page out of his book that he always reads since the book affects him badly; then he hits her when he finds out about her disrespectful behavior. This is the reason for her deafness. She strongly believes she or women can write much better than men do.
The Wife of Bath is portrayed as a strong-willed, alpha female. The Wife of Bath upholds the misogynistic ideas of Chaucer's time because she is a controlling, manipulative, know-it-all woman. Her personality and behavior both reflect the negative attributes that women were shamed for during that time. She is opinionated, dominate, and diabolical; all qualities that were not accepted easily in a woman. She defied the norm of that time.
Twenty four centuries ago, Hippocrates created the profession of medicine, for the first time in human history separating and refining the art of healing from primitive superstitions and religious rituals. His famous Oath forged medicine into what the Greeks called a technik, a craft requiring the entire person of the craftsman, an art that, according to Socrates in his dialogue Gorgias, involved virtue in the soul and spirit as well as the hands and brain. Yet Hippocrates made medicine more than a craft; he infused it with an intrinsic moral quality, creating a “union of medical skill and the integrity of the person [physician]” (Cameron, 2001).
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
Although he lived four centuries before the birth of Christ, a man named Hippocrates recorded the symptoms of diseases we still see to this day. Known as the “Father of Medicine” (Hippocrates), Hippocrates was an ancient physician who studied and recorded his observances of the body’s infections and physiology. He set forth the foundation for future physicians, and in doing so, is accredited for our knowledge of infectious diseases in earlier centuries. During this time however, many believed the earth and its inhabitants were composed of four general elements: air, water, fire, and dirt. They also believed that any one person who fell ill was being punished by the gods. As a foresighted thinker though, Hippocrates encouraged the idea that humans became ill due to natural causes. In that wisdom, he recorded all his observances of his patients and their illnesses, taking careful note of the bodily symptoms and their progression.
Scarborough, John, Van Der Eijk, Philip J., Hanson, Ann, and Siraisi, Nancy. Studies in Ancient Medicine: Hippocrates on Ancient Medicine. Translated by Mark J. Schiefsky. Boston: Brill, 2005.
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.
Johannes Kepler was a German astronomer and mathematician ho discovered that planetary motion is elliptical. Early in his life, Kepler wanted to prove that the universe obeyed Platonistic mathematical relationships, such as the planetary orbits were circular and at distances from the sun proportional to the Platonic solids (see paragraph below). However, when his friend the astronomer Tycho Brahe died, he gave Kepler his immense collection of astronomical observations. After years of studying these observations, Kepler realized that his previous thought about planetary motion were wrong, and he came up with his three laws of planetary motion. Unfortunately, he did not have a unifying theory for these laws. This had to until Newton formulated his laws of gravity and motion.
Beginning around 460 BC, the concept of humoralism emerged throughout the written works of Hippocrates. These early works, some of the only medical works of this detailed nature to survive this period, delineated one of the first ways scholars and physicians viewed the body and more importantly illness. Shaped by the Hippocratics’ version of humoralism and his own interpretations of their written works, Galen resolutely supported the fundamental four-element theory, the notion of the four humors, and the essential practice of healing by applying opposites by physicians. However, Galen’s education in anatomy proved an effective advance in his medical reasoning away from a non-ontological view of illness into a considerably more ontological and
In modern medicine when an ailment arises it can be quickly diagnosed, attributed to a precise bacteria, virus, or body system, and treated with medication, surgery or therapy. During the time before rational medical thought, this streamlined system of treatment was unheard of, and all complaints were attributed to the will of the multitude of commonly worshiped Greek gods (Greek Medicine 1). It was during the period of Greek rationalism that a perceptible change in thought was manifested in the attitudes towards treating disease. Ancient Greece is often associated with its many brilliant philosophers, and these great thinkers were some of the first innovators to make major developments in astrology, physics, math and even medicine. Among these academics was Hippocrates, one of the first e...
The widow Alisoun was seamstress by trade as well as a liberated older woman of her time in thought and action; for that reason, she traveled unescorted with a caravan of many diverse individuals toward the town of Canterbury. Hallissy submits, “The Wife of Bath’s array is flamboyant for a woman past forty, much less a widow. Her red stockings alone mark her off as improper. Her hat, as big as a shield, her five coverchiefs, her foot mantle about her hips, and her spurs on her feet indicate not only that she is ready for travel but also that she is ready for a new love. Extroverted in manner, assertive in speech, she defies authority by her appearance alone” (103). Each person on the pilgrimage shared a story with the others as a way of making the trip more enjoyable. The person whom had the most interesting tale would receive a complementary dinner at the end of their travel, co...
Johannes Kepler was born on December 27th, 1571 in the Stuttgart region of Germany. Kepler at a young age gained an interest in mathematics and astronomy and as he grew older so did his passion. When he was at the University Tubingen he was introduced to some theories one was the Geocentric and the other Heliocentric theory. He believed in the Heliocentric theory, he based a lot of his observation on that theory and also defended it. Well after college Kepler got to work for the famous astronomer Tycho Brahe. Tycho Brahe had done a lot of observation with the naked eye. A year after Kepler worked for him. Tycho Brahe took his last breath. Kepler was Brahe successor. He got to read his friend's observation on mars. As accurate as Brahe observations
These doctors had been captured in war and were taken back to Rome to work. Greek doctors would later come to Rome willingly because they could make a better living there than they could in Greek cities (“Medicine and Surgery”). The Romans used the basics of Greek medicine, but they put a spiritual twist on it. While the Greeks would just observe a patient and decide what treatment they needed, the Romans would often pray for a cure or offer gifts to the gods of healing (J Walsh, “Roman Medicine”). One practice that was adopted by the Romans was the theory of the Four Humors. This theory states that if you have too much or too little of any of the four humors, blood, yellow bile, black bile, or phlegm, it caused a disability or disease (“Humorism”). The Romans also adopted the teachings of the Father of Medicine, Hippocrates. Hippocrates was born in Greece (Elliott 25). He was the first person to figure out the disease was due to a natural cause, not a spiritual one. Hippocrates was a very brilliant man. He knew what his limits were and knew when to accept failure (Elliott
The Roman medical system was also adopted from the Greeks. The concept of roman medicine focused on the teaching of Hippocrates. Hippocrates was known as the father of medicine. He and his followers who were called empiricist believed that disease should be looked at from a natural perspective. He replaced the concept of empedoclean elements with ...
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.
“Healing is a matter of time, but sometimes also a matter of opportunity. Hence medical practice must not depend primarily on plausible theories but on experience combined with reason” Hippocrates