Analysis Of The Poem ' The Wife Of Bath ' Essay

Beginning with the prologue, the Wife of Bath makes an argument for why she believes sexuality is the key weapon to use against men to achieve her goals. Doing such, she twists the typical gender roles of the time; that women are dependent upon their husbands and need a partner for protection and wealth. The Wife also shows in her stories how she was able to falsely accuse men and continuously hold the upper hand with them, which goes against traditional gender roles of the time of women being helpless without a husband.

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.

The Wife of Bath's crusade to prove the worth of women does open the prologue to modern interpretations that reconfigure the Wife of Bath as a feminist

In the time period of the 14th century, many woman faced inequality. Women were not viewed to uphold the same quota as men. Most females were viewed as passive to males and were not able to make many demands in their relationships or make any contributions to their own survival or life. In the “Wife of Bath Tale”, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer gives an insight into the struggles of a woman. Chaucer gives a voice for women who cannot speak for themselves. He creates a tale for the Wife of Bath that includes and questions the societal views of women. Written in the words of a woman, Chaucer undermines what it means to be a female in the fourteenth century who desires independence and

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is considered a work of satire towards medieval society by many literary critics. Chaucer uses the Wife of Bath as a prime way to quip a key fourteenth century practice wherein medieval society is patriarchal from noblemen to peasants. Women are one of the most restrained groups. The Wife of Bath narrates a story mocking male superiority and spouts a pro-women narrative. In this tale, the Wife of Bath shows women not submitting to a man’s world. For this period in time, she is a progressive who implies men are not in control of society which does not fit the mold of women at the time. She infers women are running everything from behind the curtain with men merely being used as puppets.

Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales presents several interesting characters, of which the most interesting is the Wife of Bath. A stand-out character meant to generate a shocking response from the reader, the Wife of Bath is both headstrong and blunt, especially for a woman of her time. Although the Wife of Bath clearly is educated in Biblical passages due to her many references to the Bible in her tale’s prologue and tale, the basis of her argument—that women should gain total sovereignty in marriage by using sex as their weapon to gain dominance—is actually undermined by her Biblical examples and her own description of her fifth marriage.

Additionally, the Wife of Bath was not submissive. Even though her husbands were “the head(s) of the household,” Alison managed gain some control in their relationship. “A husband I will have, I will not desist, who shall be both my debtor and my slave. (Pg. 291)” Essentially, if the Wife of Bath wanted her husband to be productive or helpful, she would withhold sex. “Until he had paid his ransom to me; then I would allow him to do his foolishness. (Pg. 307)” When the lack of sex wasn’t enough, Alison would nag them into compliance. However, she didn’t use the same tactics with Jenkins, because they were actually in love—“Whom I took for love and not for money. (Pg. 315)”

One main theme in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is female dominance and equality. In the tale, the wife portrays her dominance through her own experience. For example, the image of the whip sets her role as master, and she tells everyone that she is the head of her household. Despite her claim that experience is her sole power, the Wife of Bath evidently feels the need to create her authority in a more scholarly manner. She mimics the habits of the scholars and churchmen by supporting her claims with quotations from antique works and scripture.

The Wife of Bath’s Tale features a character that seemed to resemble a feminist. But in Chaucer’s time, feminism was thought to be abnormal and the pilgrims

Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale” focus on the story telling of a woman who has experienced her fair share of marital issues. She is depicted as a promiscuous woman, married five times and had plenty of male suitors, the Wife was not like any other woman during this era. Although her reputation was how most perceived her, she was not a fan of being scrutinized for what she considered as her duty as a woman; to not remain single. This is seen through the depiction of women in society, how marriage ought to be in the eyes of religion, and how men were to view a woman like her. The language that is used throughout Chaucer’s prologue and tale allude to the evolution of women as well as how they struggled to gain any recognition in

During this time period, a few women had a very feminist view on the idea of marriage. This is the idea that women should have freedom in the marriage and be able to do the same things in the community as her husband. This also means that in the context of the marriage, the wife should be the most powerful and have control over her husband. This was especially expressed from the Wife of Bath as she speaks of her views in her prologue and her tale. In the Wife of Bath’s prologue, she tells that she has had four husbands before the one she has now and that she is not ashamed of her lack of virginity even as some of the community members look down on her. She doesn’t think it’s fair that “if a woman has more than one husband in her lifetime, she is frowned upon, but it is acceptable for men to remarry several times” (Marcotte). The Wife of Bath wants to have equality as a female in the social aspects of her marriage.

To expand on what was said about women and negative connotations that are placed upon them as the Wife of Bath points out was a matter that was seen even in writings of the time as her fifth husband read to her very often the wrong doings of "wicked wives" and how all women are a disturbance and only seek money and all the finer things from their men. The absolute goal was to make women look like nuisances. At this point there was much literal works to in her Prologue to prove the cynical mind

In the 21st century, many women have been successful because of feminism. Women empowerment in our current time is a lot strong than in the Medieval period, but it is still weak. In “The Canterbury Tales” by Chaucer it represents strong feminist characters in, “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale”. The characters such as a Wife of Bath, an old hag, and also a Queen from “Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale,” play a feminist character in the male-dominated society during that time. Through these three characters, we see strong examples of feminism.

The story of the Wife of Bath provides an insight to the role women were expected to play during the late middle ages. In the Prologue, Alice narrates her story guided by her life experience and religious beliefs. Alice is a reformed woman who goes against the patriarchal community’s expectation of women being suppressed by their men (Carter, 309). According to Kittredge (440), the wife of bath contradicts the church’s expectation that the wife should be loyal and holy because she is portrayed as evil and wicked. The story makes the parable of confession, whereby the wife uses a novel approach to confess to her audience about her gluttony and lust in her life (Cooper, 18). Alice tells a story that implies most women who lived during this era as unfaithful and evil with an aim to undermine their men. The Wife of Bath defies the religious and medieval churches belief that men should rule over women by being openly feministic.

The moral of Wife of Bath is that happiness in a relationship is when a woman is able to have control over her husband against a backdrop of the submissive wives of the Middle Ages. The prologue portrays a jovial woman who introduces herself and her beliefs on marriage. She has never been fond of authority and attributes her expertise in relationships to marriages with five different men. The Wife of Bath’s tale depicts a knight who needs to learn women’s greatest desire within a year in order to avoid beheading. The knight learns that “women desire to have the sovereignty and sit in rule and government above their husbands, and to have their way in love” (Lines 156-8). In the end, the sovereignty the knight gives to his old wife transforms her into a young woman and, “they lived in full joy to the end” (Line 325). The tale is not only a reflection of one’s interest to dominate a relationship, but also a need