Chaucer: Wife of Bath In the Wife of Bath, the Wife’s prologue is very lengthy and has her information about her life. The prologue explains the Wife’s theories about experiences versus authority. The Wife of Bath have already had five husband, which means she had enough experience on marriage to make her an expert. She is not ashamed of her life or marriages and feels she should not be criticize for her behavior. The Wife reference several biblical quotes to justify her views and explains she does not feel God should punish those who marry more than once. As the prologue goes on, the Wife of Bath describes her marriages and tells what women most desire in their relationship. The thing that women most desire is to have complete control over their husbands. In the beginning of the prologue, the Wife attacks arguments from the Bible to defend her position that marriage is inferior to
A strong knight who was in King Arthur’s castle rapes a beautiful young maiden. The people were sicken by the knight’s behavior and wanted justice for his action. The law demanded the knight be beheaded, but the queen and her court plead for another option. The queen gave him a year to find what women most desire. The year passes quickly and as the knight rides back to the court in depress, knowing that he will lose his life, he suddenly see some young maidens singing and dancing. As he approaches them, they disappear, and an old woman approaches him and ask what he seeks. When he explains his quest to the old woman, she gives him the answer that he needs, but he must submit to her demands first. The knight agrees to the old woman terms and she whisper the answer. He then rides back to the queen and her court with the answer that women most desire is to have sovereignty over their husbands. The queen and her court agrees that was the correct answer and they spared his
Facing felony charges of misdeed, Lanval’s entire fate lies solely in the hands of his lady. When King Arthur agrees that: “if he [Lanval] can produce proof; / if his love would come forward, / if what he said, / what upset the queen, is true, / then he will be acquitted” (451-455), Marie places incredible power in the presence of a woman. In a time when being male was the prime prerequisite for holding authority—and women were openly seen as senseless and insignificant—Lanval’s lover’s ability to determine a knight’s fate makes a mockery of the current societal
... she responded in the fullest measure With all that could delight or give him pleasure.” Basically the Knight got a beautiful on the inside and out woman and wife. He never really got punished like he should’ve for raping that woman. In a way this seems to be mocking rape that solving a stupid question could get a man a beautiful wife and out of a crime he committed. He should’ve been killed in the very beginning of the story.
Regularly characterized as monsters, women were ridiculed for being sexually unappeasable, lustful, and shrewish, and they were regarded with condescension by the church authorities. Similarly, people in the medieval era regarded multiple marriages as highly questionable, and it is for this reason that the Wife of Bath carefully examines the words of God as revealed in scripture (revealing her to be more than a simple-minded woman: a knowledge of religious texts proves she is definitely educated and well-read). She confesses that nowhere can she find a stricture against her having more than one marriage, and her five husbands are therefore her choice and hers only. “He seith to be wedded is no synne:/ Bet is to be wedded than to brynne”, she remarks humorously, drawing on the fact that by God’s permission, finding a partner through marriage is a pastime with little consequences, for it is better than engaging in sin and burning for it (50-53. 301). This begins her analysis of the bible and the often “sinful” breakdown of a sexual relationship between man and woman, and introduces her repetitive idea of the
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...
It is up to her whether to make the knight the happiest man on earth or to make him miserable for as long as she lives.
Despite the fact that this lady was supposedly untouchable due to her status as “taken” this man or rather knight made it his mission to win her over or it was his mission to please her. This Knight would go to great lengths sometimes setting into long journeys, battling other knights and going into chivalric adventures in what is known as the other world. This knight or the courtly lover is like a slave to this passionate, romantic love for example in the tale “Le Chevalier de la charrette”, a courtly romance whose hero obeys every imperious and unreasonable demand of the heroine. A slave willing to put his own life at risk in order to show his love and passion for this one woman. For example, In “Lancelot, the Knight of Cart” Lancelot first part is a physical quest though driven by love, the knight tries to rescue Guinevere. However, once he finds her, he does not stop, he continued to quest in order to deserve her love. Even after they consummate their relationship in the tower, he must continue to do her bidding, suggesting that the quest for love never ceases. We see this untouchable love through his love and adulterous feelings for the queen, Lady Guinevere, this lady made untouchable through her marriage to King
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.
knight on a horse to come rescue and provide for her as well as the acceptance of women
Virtually everything the Wife of Bath does or says regarding different aspects of her life demonstrates that she is very insecure about herself. She begins her prologue by informing the travelers that she has the authority to argue about and discuss marriage because of her experiences: “Experience, though noon auctori...
“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.
In both The Green Knight, and The Canterbury tales, women are viewed upon as sexual objects to the men. The green knight rapes a woman who he feels is no greater than a body. In The Green Knight, Pearl Poet makes The Knight's wife act upon the nobleman as promiscuous and unfaithful. A great amount of times the wife tries to lure the nobleman into her bedroom, making her look desperate. The Knights lady said, “She begged him for her sake to not say a word, and keep it hidden from her lord.”
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
Chaucer, Geoffrey (1987). “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue.” The Riverside Chaucer, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 105-116.
Of all the numerous females depicted in literature throughout the centuries, Geoffrey Chaucer’s Wife of Bath has inspired more in-depth discussion and gender-oriented analysis than the majority. She is in turn praised and criticized for her behavior and her worldview; critics can’t seem to decide whether she is a strong portrayal of 14th century feminism or a cutting mockery of the female sex. Both her tale and its prologue are riddled with themes of conflict and power struggle between the sexes, and the victor of this battle is not made explicit. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales being a parody of various societal conceptions and literary conventions, it is likely that this ambiguity was entirely intentional. By comparing the Wife of Bath and her husbands to the characters presented in the tale, Chaucer makes the subtle but sharp implication that there is no true winner in the battle of the sexes; the essential qualities of men and women are equally unsavory, and harmony between the two can only be achieved when an illusion of triumph has been constructed separately for both parties.
The knight in the tale had no choice but to submit to the sovereignty of the old hag. If the knight was a little smarter and did his homework in trying to say, "Hey, how does this old hag know the answer to what women most desire? She’s probably never been with a man before!" The knight was ...