Women everywhere have been judge centuries at a time. A lot of people don’t understand the stress women haves on stereotypes and low expectations. Chaucer the author of the Canterbury Tales created a story called the “The Wife of Bath’s and a Tale” which elaborate on how women are judge and looked upon by men. In The Wife of Bath’s there is a wife who went to a marriage counselor with her husband and was seated to talk about their concerns. Not to mention that Chaucer wrote this story in the fourteen century when women was looked upon as inferior and submissive towards men. In addition, woman married young and expected to be virgins which was viewed as purity. During the fourteen century woman wasn’t expected to be educated and talk back or …show more content…
The other two were bad and treated her badly. People who are usually divorced are usually frown upon and it raises question as in “what went wrong”, when it comes to females it is usually worse. Some of Bath’s past relationships, she was abused physically and emotionally. An article online talks about how people justify physical and emotional abuse and it quotes “More than 1.35 million people accessed domestic violence victim services in 2005.” (Copyright © 2014 The Allstate Foundation.) This number is only raising and woman getting abused everywhere are suffering. Also in the story, while Bath sit up and discusses the flaws in her last marriage she points out “But well I know, expressly, it’s no lie, that God bade us to wax ad multiply; this gentle text, I can well understand.” (Chaucer. Page 682, lines 27-30.) She also talks about how it’s a difference between men and woman when it comes to marriage and sex. “Lo, here is the wise king, Don Solomon; I think he had some wives, well more than one. Now would to God it lawful were for me to be refreshed here half so much as he!” (Chaucer. Page 682-683, lines 35-39). This is also happening now in today’s society where males can get away with things woman can’t and will be judge by their actions. Even today ladies will be judge by the way they look just like they did during the fourteen century, “And if she should be ugly, you say she will …show more content…
The wife of bath told a tale about how there was this lady who was attractive and was walking down a path minding her business when a knight came alone and force himself on her. “From which maid, then, no matter what she said, by very force, he took her maidenhead; this oppressive violence caused such clamor.”(Chaucer. Page 701, lines 892- 895). This crime came with a punishment which involves him learning women deepest desire. “I grant you life, if you can tell to me what thing it is that women most desire.”(Chaucer. Page 702, lines 910-911.) On his journey, he ran into what seems like an old hag and ended up marrying her. The old hag was actually a magical woman who display herself as an old woman to teach the knight a lesson that looks isn’t everything. During this time, he seen the woman in her natural form and realize that he understood that all women want is control and power over their husbands. When it was time to step in front of the council he said “Women desire to have sovereignty as well over their husbands as their loves, and to be in mastery them above” (Chaucer. Page 704, lines 1043-1046). This answer was brought in front of the Judge granted him life. Later on in the tale his wife gave him an option to stay an old hag during the day and become a beautiful woman at night or become a hag at night and during the day become a beautiful woman. He said toward his wife “My lady and my love and wife so dear, I
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.
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...
Wife of Bath. Her character is noted to be strong and bold and we learn
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. It is up to her whether to make the knight the happiest men on earth or to make him miserable for as long as she lives:
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.
In the Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Chaucer illustrates the different perspective between men and women on the concept of marriage and love. In The Wife of Bath’s tale, it is shown the woman appreciating marriage and wanting to be able to love a man unconditionally as where in The Miller’s Tale, love isn’t anything, but sex with the man in the story. In accordance with Chaucer, the complication with marriage is that men are consumed by sexual desire and are easily abused by women like The Wife of Bath. As noticed, The Miller’s Tale is all about adultery. “Just like men, the wives have secrets, as does God”, says the Miller. Both have information that the other do not know about that are sacred and better left unsaid.
In most cases today rape gets you sentenced to prison and sometimes death. Back in Chaucer’s day, in the text The Wife of Bath’s Tale, Chaucer wrote about a knight in the text The Wife of Bath’s Tale. This knight was arrested for his deed of raping a woman. His punishment is not as suffice as it would be in the modern world. The life of the knight was spared because of his beauty that the Queen had seen. Instead, the Queen insisted that the knight go on a trip; a trip that would last a year and a day. When the knight’s time was up, he would return to the Queen and explain what she had asked him before he left on his journey. The question that was asked was, “’yet you shall live if you can answer me: what is the thing that women most desire?’” says the queen ([Prentice Hall Literature] page 140 lines 50-51).As for the knight, what final choice does the old woman offer the knight? In what way does his response show that he has finally learned his lesson about the nature of women? And finally, Has the knight experienced sufficient punishment and redemption for his crime.
In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, a collection of tales is presented during a pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral. The pilgrims on the journey are from divergent economic and social backgrounds but they have all amalgamated to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas. Chaucer uses each pilgrim to tell a tale which portrays an arduous medieval society. The values, morals and social structures of the society can be examined through the fictitious tales, unravelling a corrupt, unjust and manipulative world, a world that is based around an ecclesiastical society.
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.
The Wife of Bath had a strong argument in favour of marriage but is easy to fault. Her argument that marriage grows more virgins, while correct makes us wonder why she bore no children. And she also mentions the fact that “in wyfhood I wol use myn instrument” but her marriage did not seem to have stopped her from restraining her “Chamber of Venus from a good felawe.” The Wife of Bath confuses bigamy with remarriage and manipulates the arguments for remarriage to suit her purpose. Chaucer gives the Wife of Bath’s arguments less credibility
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is written in an entertaining and adventurous spirit, but serves a higher purpose by illustrating the century’s view of courtly love. Hundreds, if not thousands, of other pieces of literature written in the same century prevail to commemorate the coupling of breathtaking princesses with lionhearted knights after going through unimaginable adventures, but only a slight few examine the viability of such courtly love and the related dilemmas that always succeed. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that women desire most their husband’s love, Overall, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” shows that the meaning of true love does not stay consistent, whether between singular or separate communities and remains timeless as the depictions of love from this 14th century tale still hold true today.
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.