Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales included two important stories called the “Wife of Bath’s Tale” and prologue and the “Nun’s Priest Tale” and prologue. These stories are told individually by people that are embarking on a religious pilgrimage. In particular, the “Wife of Bath’s Tale” and prologue and the “Nun’s Priest Tale” and prologue highlight the way that Geoffrey Chaucer evokes misogynist views from readers in his description of the main women characters. Through the “Wife of Bath’s Tale” and prologue and the “Nun’s Priest Tale” and prologue, Geoffrey Chaucer emits misogynist feelings by describing women characters in a insulting way, as well as by describing the poor manner in which objectify and treat men.
The “Wife of Bath’s Tale”
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The Wife of Bath acts like she an alpha-figure and a know-it-all. This was probably frowned upon during this period because men were supposed to be superior to women. She categorizes her husbands into the ones she liked and ones that she did not care for. Her blatant judgment of men is something that was not likely to be taken well by other men. The Wife of Bath is proud of teasing her husbands into giving her what she wanted, as well as making false suggestions that they cheated on her. She directly admitted to having sex with her husbands whenever she was in need of money. That is very similar to prostitution, which was, and still is, absolutely immoral. Furthermore, “…her chief means of bending the old men to her will was to use against them their inordinate attraction to sex. Merchandizing her sexual favors in this fashion although she may not subscribe so rigorously as she implies to the principle ‘al is for to selle’ certainly earns the Wife our disapproval…” (Oberempt 292). The Wife of Bath does not have the typical behavior of a woman during the medieval period (Gestsdóttir 9). The Wife of …show more content…
Furthermore, she says “And sith that they hadde hem hoolly in myn hand, and sith that they hadde yiven me al hir land, what sholde I take keep hem for to please, but it were for my profit and myn ese” (Greenblatt 287)? She is bragging about draining her husbands of their money and getting everything she wanted and she no longer needs to provide them sexual favors and will continue to use them. The Wife of Bath said “And to my nece which I loved weel, I wolde han told his conseil everydeel; and so I dide ful often, God it woot, that made his face often reed and hoot for verray shame, and blamed himself for he hadde told to me so greet a privetee” (Greenblatt 294). She was not able to keep a secret. The Wife of Bath talks about a story in which a woman cannot keep a secret about someone who has donkey ears in his hair. Even though she promised to keep this a secret, she could not help herself because women cannot keep secrets. She also
The wife of bath shows us greed throughout the whole play. She wants to gain sovereignty over her husbands. She believes a happy relationship is one where the wife
Some say women can get the worst out of a man, but in The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1485, proves it. The tales were originally written as a collection of twenty four tales, but has been narrowed down to three short tales for high school readers. The three tales consist of “The Miller”, “The Knight”, and “The Wife of Bath” along with their respective prologues. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer shows the weak but strong role of women throughout the “The Knight’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” to contrast different human characteristics and stereotypes on the spectrum of people.
The image of the woman in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue is depicted by Chaucer to be “barley wheat” in a town and civilization lusting for whole white wheat or virginity (Chaucer 1711). The woman has married many men and in doing so forgotten the true value of the Christian faith and now believes worldly influence can overpower the scriptures of the Bible, “can you show in plain words that Almighty God forbade us marriage? Or where did he command virginity?” (Chaucer 1709). Jackie Shead analyzes the prologue and states, “it begins by manipulating authoritative texts--a pre-emptive strike to justify the Wife's marital history and her single-minded pursuit of self-gratification” (Shead). The possibility of the Wife of B...
Pride and Lust are the two sins closely associated with the Wife of Bath. The Wife of Bath is a woman who is too proud of herself as shown by her style of clothing. Chaucer begins by describing her familiar Sunday clothing as “Her kerchiefs were of finely woven ground; I dared have sworn they weighed a good ten pound” (463-464). This type of clothing is atypical for a person attending a church service. Moreover, “Her hose were of the finest scarlet red and gartered tight; her shoes were soft and new. Bold her face, handsome, and red in hue” (466-468). All these things exemplifies her self-...
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.
The Wife of Bath, a cloth maker, gets rich after her husbands die and leave her their fortunes. Even though medieval women were still far from being powerful, and had to obey their husbands, Alisoun states that she has power over her men’s bodies and property all her life: “ I have the power during al my life, Upon his proper body, and nat he”(line 164). Alisoun is an exception to the rule because she marries five times and is widowed five times. It is important to mention that there was no divorce for women in the fourteenth century: “She was a worthy woman al hr live. Husbondes at chirche dore she hadde five, Withouten other compaignye in youthe” (line 461). The three first husbands are old, rich and loyal to her. The fourth husband has a mistress: “My ferthe housbonde was a revelour. This is to sayn, he hadde a paramour” (line 459). The Wife of Bath learns that it is very important for a woman to satisfy her man, and she knows how to act to make him obedient and less powerful...
God help me so, I was to him as kind. As any wife from Denmark unto India.(819-820, 828-830). Therefore, according to the "Wife of Bath's Prologue," economic power over their husbands is what women wished to have. However, later, in her "Tale" the Wife of Bath presents another opinion - women wish to have emotional power over their husbands as well. The fact that the hag is able to decide for herself whether to turn into a beautiful wife or to remain in her present state, manifests her power over the husband.
In The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, the stereotypes and roles in society are reexamined and made new through the characters in the book. Chaucer discusses different stereotypes and separates his characters from the social norm by giving them highly ironic and/or unusual characteristics. Specifically, in the stories of The Wife of Bath and The Miller’s Tale, Chaucer examines stereotypes of women and men and attempts to define their basic wants and needs.
The character of the Wife of Bath in Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Prologue is a strong woman who knows what she wants from life. She is ahead of her time, seeing that women who portrayed themselves the way she does were not necessarily looked positively upon. In this sense, I believe that the Wife of Bath is a feminist. When I use the word feminist I do not mean bra-burning, men hating feminist. I mean a woman who is in touch with herself. She is her own genre when it comes to feminism. She is comfortable with her sexuality and what she wants from life. Through Chaucer, she is viewed as a promiscuous; however, she is actually in control of her sexual adventures.
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.
Chaucer, in his female pilgrimage thought of women as having an evil-like quality that they always tempt and take from men. They were depicted as untrustworthy, selfish and vain and often like caricatures not like real people at all. Through the faults of both men and women, Chaucer showed what is right and wrong and how one should live. Under the surface, however, lies a jaded look of women in the form that in his writings he seems to crate them as caricatures and show how they cause the downfall of men by sometimes appealing to their desires and other times their fears. Chaucer obviously had very opinionated views of the manners and behaviours of women and expressed it strongly in The Canterbury Tales. In his collection of tales, he portrayed two extremes in his prospect of women. The Wife of Bath represented the extravagant and lusty woman where as the Prioress represented the admirable and devoted followers of church. Chaucer delineated the two characters contrastingly in their appearances, general manners, education and most evidently in their behaviour towards men. Yet, in the midst of disparities, both tales left its readers with an unsolved enigma.
The “Wife of Bath’s Prologue” shows that Alisoun was empowered by the ability use her sexuality. As she introduces her tale, Alisoun makes it clear that she sees marriage as a way to gain money and status, “Of fyve husbondes
Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is an important part of his most famed work, The Canterbury Tales. One of the most respected highly analyzed of all of the tales, this particular one is important both for its character development and its prevailing themes. It seamlessly integrates ideas on society at that time with strong literary development. This work stands the test of time both because of its literary qualities and because of what it can teach us about the role of women in late Medieval society.
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.
Women have the ability to get what they want, when they want it. Chaucer portrays the Wife of bath as the dominant person in her marriages. She looks at men as her trinkets to be used and played with. She moves from one man to another, always looking for more. The Wife of Bath is a control freak, wanting to have sex when she desires it and with whom she desires.