The Wife of Bath is a very outgoing young woman who is seated next to the Nun and the Cook in order to cause a ruckus during dinner. Considering the Wife of Bath is very dramatic and high-maintenance, she is appalled to find out that she is sitting next to the bold Cook who does not mind to cover his large sore on his leg. He was also part of the hardworking middle class which the Wife of Bath found completely insulting to be sitting next to her since she was so selfish and only cared about her appearance. To her right was the Nun who was almost as materialistic as herself. They would get along just fine and could have a easy conversion, however, they would strive to be better than the other. Challenging one another was their specialty.
Chaucer characterizes The Wife of Bath as controlling and powerful. The Wife of Bath was a complete contradiction of the typical female, during this time. The average woman was submissive and reserved. Whereas, The Wife of Bath possessed character traits that one would associate with men. Chaucer emphasizes this trait by describing her in such ways one would describe a man.
He continued to work on the tales through a number of changes in both his personal and professional life. He was made a Justice of Peace* in Kent, since he had moved from London. He also became a member of Parliament representing Kent in 1387. A year later his wife Philippa died of causes unknown to history. In 1389 Chaucer got a job as Clerk of the King’s Works.
In “The Franklin’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer, he employs the idea of gender norms to present a maistrie where Arveragus is dominant over Dorigen in their relationship. Chaucer entails this dominance over Dorigen when Arvegaus is described that “he wrought for his lady before she was won.” The fact that Chaucer describes Dorigen as being “won over” by Arvegaus denotes the dominance he has over her. Dorigen is being won over as if she is an object or more specifically a trophy that can be owned. This is done to the effect of emphasizing the idea that Dorigen, like most women during that time, are only property of their husbands.
Through the structure of her speech, Chaucer characterizes the Wife of Bath as loquacious. Because she goes on many tangents during her dialogue, it is apparent that the Wife of Bath is a character that loves to talk. For instance, when she is telling her tale and digresses to talk about Ovid, she says, “If you wish to hear the rest of the tale, [...] When this knight whom this tale specially concerns.” (Wife of Bath Tale 126-127).
The Wife of Bath’s behaviors are questionable but are inherently aided by the social injustices that face women of this time period. The Wife of Bath discloses that for her first three marriages she sought out older wealthy men for sex and money. Her intentions included making her husbands fall in love with her and then making them have enormous amounts of sex until they die. In addition, the wife elaborates on her occasional tumultuous tirades of accusing her husbands of being unfaithful to her. Her uproars chided her husbands into persistently obliging into her every request.
The multiplicity of voices in The Canterbury Tales makes it difficult to impose a certain meaning on any individual voice or narrative, or to comment on authorial intent. Whilst we cannot pinpoint a solid ‘Chaucer-author’ voice, each of his pilgrim narrators have distinct styles and tones, holding vastly varying opinions, particularly in relation to gender and power. This is indeed the case with the Wife of Bath and the Clerk, whose narratives both address the power struggle between men and women. With examination of The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and The Clerk’s Tale, this essay will argue that power is a patriarchal possession, which manifests itself through the acts of gazing and glossing, and against which Alisoun and Griselda are contested. The Wife of Bath is in direct discourse with the notion of medieval antifeminism, which was ‘undoubtedly one of the loudest voices amongst
In the Wife of Bath’s, she broke all the stereotypes Medieval society thought a wife is. She tells the people that being married intercourse is part of marriage and God has made privates parts to make generations, not to waste in doing nothing. Being categorized or stereotyped in Medieval society was hard for married women in the Medieval era because often they were portrayed as disloyal, uncontrolled sexual beasts because of the lack of marriage
Although the wife of bath thinks she has the upperhand in her fifth marriage, she actually gives more to her husband than readers may think. “-From that day on we had no more debate. So help me God, to him I was as kind/ As any wife from here to the world’s end,/And
The Wife of Bath begins to describe two of her husbands whom she thought were bad. First, her fourth husband, whom she married when still young, who liked to have fun, however he had a mistress. Remembering her wild youth, she feels nostalgic of how old she has become, but she says that she pays her loss of beauty no mind. She then confesses that she was his purgatory on Earth, always trying to make him jealous. He died while she was on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
In the fourteen century, men were always the superior, head of the household, the breadwinner, but women were always inferior, they would stay at home, do the house work, cook, and never would have a job. Well, times have changed. Women are reaching an equal status to men in political, social and economic matters It’s part of the idea called Feminism. In many ways the Wife of Bath displays many characteristic of women in the 21st century. Instead of being directed by men, she views herself as an independent person.
Gender role refers to those behaviors and attitudes that are considered to belong to one sex. Gender role is based on femininity and masculinity that differentiate women and men by giving men some roles and women which results to gender inequality. There some work in society that is regarded to belong to women such as cooking, taking care of children and other less important roles while men are given roles that makes them superior than women. Most of the gender roles associated with women makes them inferior and creates a room to be oppressed. Gender roles are constructed by society and attributed to women or men.
The Wife of Bath and her tale are the most similar out of all the tales because they both share a domineering outlook over others. In the general prologue she is told to have had five husbands and is described as a looker, “Her face was bold and handsome and ruddy,” (Chaucer 39). In her prologue she goes more in depth of her time spent with her five husbands. Wife of Bath talks most about how she gains control over her husbands. For instance, her fifth husband was the controlling force in their marriage until he made the mistake of hitting her and telling her he would do anything to keep her with him and said, “My own true wife, do as you wish for the rest of your life…” (335).
In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, Chaucer’s message was to teach men to respect women more and let women also have power in a relationship. The reasoning behind this message is because society in the medieval era did not respect women and Chaucer was attempting to teach that through poetry. The man in the story raped a woman and before being sent to death he was saved and given the opportunity to learn about what he did wrong. People don’t get second chances in real life, so writing a poem about the impossible and showing true enlightenment is Chaucer’s way of being a hero. The man learns from the old women about control and how he should love her and respect her for her and not her looks.
While reading in the prologue to The Wife of Bath’s Tale, during the times when I am able to read the story fluently and without having to divert my attention to overcome the difference in spelling, grammar, language, etc., I do find aspects of Alison’s nature amusing. Her quick to judge mentality and solid beliefs are explained to all in such a remarkably unapologetic way, even when her actions or thoughts appear to be questionable, that she often comes across as ludicrously self righteous. Quite proud of her marital manipulation, or more specifically, her manipulation of all men, it is clear she relishes divulging all of her conniving stunts, as if each form of misery she inflicts upon her husband is a trophy worth taking down at any
The Canterbury Tales had a great impact on English literature. Chaucer wrote in a style that was undoubtedly nontraditional. Through his strong vocabulary and his utilization of different methods, he captures his audience’s attention. “The connections made by the individual writers between the self-serving confessions and the celebrity expose the didacticism of the exemplum and modern ghost stories. The vain delusion common to the fabliaux attest to both the malleability and the modernity of Chaucer 's material.”