ipl-logo

Wife Of Bath Feminist Essay

570 Words3 Pages

Many scholars today debate that the Wife of Bath is a feminist standing against oppressive behavior from males and the technical definition of femininity and masculinity. Wife of Bath is characterized being radical especially when it comes to relationships with men. She is characterized as knowing much about love, being depicted as gap-toothed, symbolizing being “sexually accomplished”; she admits that she is a rambunctious woman who enjoys sex and is not ashamed of it, which is a violation of the medieval view that saw sex as justified only for procreation.
In Chaucer's time, the antifeminism was strong in the church. Women were frequently characterized as monsters; they were sexually unsatisfying, lecherous, short-tempered, and they were patronized by church authorities. Women were not allowed to participate in church doctrine in any way; likewise, a second marriage was considered suspect. Furthermore, in Chaucer's time, perpetual virginity received considerable praise. Some of the saints were canonized because they preferred death to the loss of their virginity, …show more content…

“God has given women by nature deceit, weeping, and spinning, as long as they live” (Chaucer, 201). The Wife of Bath believes that experience is the greatest authority, and since she has been married five times, she certainly considers herself an authority on the. It is ironic to see the even though is not religious but, she uses the Bible as justification to pardon her behavior. She is not ashamed of her having six different husbands and being sexually active for pleasure, another thing that was frowned upon: fornication. To most people of this time, sex was strictly for reproduction. Her reasoning for not needing to be ashamed is that God made reproductive organs for both “necessary business and pleasure” (Chaucer, 189). As justification for marrying multiple times, she believes that in God’s eyes it is approved of and

Show More
Related

  • Wife Of Bath Ethos And Logos

    1028 Words  | 5 Pages

    “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” that we have been studying consists of several claims and arguments. Some of them are marriage is not a sin, women and men are equal, a wife should have the control over her husband, the husband should obey and follow his wife’s orders, and those men who did not follow the rule have to be punished by god. However, not all of the arguments are present in both the prologue and the tale. The main argument, which is present in both the prologue and the tale, is that a wife should be incharge in relationship and take control over her husband. At the same time, the husband should love and obey his wife by following her orders.

    Read More

  • The Struggle For Power In Chaucer's The Wife Of Bath

    249 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Wife Of Bath Dbq

    689 Words  | 3 Pages

    This quote suggests that the Wife of Bath believes all women are incapable of keeping a secret, which is an untrue and harmful stereotype. Her main opinion on women seems to be that while they wish to appear wise, pure, and good on the outside, it does not mean they are perfect internally and many

    Read More

  • Feminist Theory Lens

    1381 Words  | 6 Pages

    Chaucer writes The Wife of Bath as a character who is superior to her husbands and as a woman who embraces her sexuality to the fullest extent. Through this characterization, she is able to defy the patriarchal society that is threatening to oppress her. She breaks the chains of ownership and finds a way to reverse the gender roles, by instead “chaining” her husbands. Yet, despite all of this, The Wife of Bath still succumbs to the idea that women are only relevant through their physical attributes by not only herself, but Chaucer as

    Read More

  • The Wife Of Bath: Social Injustices

    206 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Married Women In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

    1243 Words  | 5 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Wife Of Bath Stereotypes

    170 Words  | 1 Pages

    Chaucer's “The Wife of Bath” portrays negative stereotypes of women in the Middle Ages. Many people believe that the Wife was one of the first feminist characters in literature, unfortunately this statement is discouraged due to the fact that the Wife conforms to many of these misogynistic stereotypes. The Wife denies men of sexual favors when she discovers they are not paying her the amount of money she desires. She declares herself as a dominating woman, who is ready to trade her sex for money but also forcefully argues against the misogynistic views of women. Which is hypocritical and shows that the Wife is adapting to the stereotypes.

    Read More

  • Wife Of Bath: Do Women Have Power Over Men?

    260 Words  | 2 Pages

    One inference I can make about the Wife of Bath is that most characters in this tale would rather be lusted for than actually loved. We see this when the knight would rather have an unfaithful beautiful wife over a faithful not so pretty wife. This shows me that the knight would rather lust after the beautiful girl while he is in competition for her attention, which is not a healthy relationship. When the knight goes on his journey to find what women most desire for, he finds that the answer is that women want power over men. I believe that women wanted this so badly because their men were not faithful to them and they were always chasing after someone new.

    Read More

  • Sex, Marriage, And Violence In The Wife Of Bath

    498 Words  | 2 Pages

    In her prologue and tale the Wife of Bath discusses the topics of sex, marriage and violence, putting them together in a story in order to describe important social problems of the Middle Ages, which depict high oppression of women of the time. The first issue is the sexual negativity that is associated with females. Wife of Bath advocates for sexual freedom, unlike other women, she is proud of her sexuality and attractiveness. Seeing sex as a positive thing, the feminist argues that it is God given: “God Bad us to wexe and multiplyee” (28).

    Read More

  • The Wife Of Bath Feminist Essay

    1060 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout her introduction of the tale, and the story itself, we see the Wife of Bath as an experienced, intellectual woman, who despite living in a world of patriarchal power, provides for herself financially, emotionally, and physically. As a feminist icon, she confronts serious social issues that illustrate the subjugation women faced. During her prologue and her tale, it is very clear that the Wife of Bath is proud and not ashamed of her sexuality. She views sex as a good ideal, and argues it, using references from the Bible, that God’s intentions

    Read More

  • Comparing Women In The Knight's Tale And The Wife Of Bath

    365 Words  | 2 Pages

    Women in the middle ages tend to be push aside as the Chaucer displayed in “The Knight’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”. In the medieval system, people believed that women are to be educated by their husbands, that women are vicious, and therefore they believe men were always right. Women’s position in society was determined by the unfavorable attitudes of leaders. Women also was to seem to be following the Mother of Christ example to preserve their virginity. When the Wife of Bath was created there was no awareness of feminine desire for equality.

    Read More

  • The Wife Of Bath In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

    531 Words  | 3 Pages

    The wife of bath beliefs that she is an expert on marriage. The Wife of Bath belives that a woman should have the control in the relationship and not the man. The Wife of Bath's "Prologue" she has had many husbands, but mostly favors her latest husband. Her fifth husband was a very abusive man, mostly because she would poke at him and mess with his belongings. To get control of her husband she would act dead after he would punch her in the face, so she would guilty him into giving her over the control

    Read More

  • Gender Role In Wife Of Bath's Tale By Geoffrey Chaucer

    775 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the book of Wife of Bath’s Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer shows the role of a woman being weak creatures while men are economically powerful and educated. Women are seen as inheritor of eve and thus causes

    Read More

  • Wife Of Bath Satire

    192 Words  | 1 Pages

    In the beginning of the Wife of Bath’s prologue she is explaining to the other travels that she is an expert in marriage. She tells stories of her five husbands to “prove” to the others that she is knowledge and has enough experience in this subject matter and should listen to her. While explaining the “tricks” she uses on her husbands she says “‘Since woman’s less reasonable than male, / you must therefore be patient.’” (Chaucer, 441,442). The Wife of Bath is saying that women aren’t as patient as men and can’t control their emotions which is why men have to control theirs.

    Read More

  • Women's Role In The Middle Ages

    775 Words  | 4 Pages

    Chaucer creates a woman that is anything but powerless, therefore mocking the Medieval social system. Moreover, Chaucer utilizes irony to criticize the Church’s view on virginity when Alice declares, but “were organs made for reproducing man/ Who’s made in such a wise and perfect way?/They were not made for nothing, safe to say”(116-118).Chaucer portrays Alice as not fitting the mold of a perfect person because she is not a virgin. He criticizes the church with the Catholic Church’s belief on virginity. This is satirical because of the irony that if one is a virgin, they cannot reproduce, but one is given the organs to do so.

    Read More

More about Wife Of Bath Feminist Essay

Open Document