Compare And Contrast The Knight's Tale And The Wife Of Bath

“Lanval” by Marie de France and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer are both medieval romances that put a knight on trial by a queen’s court for his treatment of a lady. Throughout the course of this paper, readers will get the opportunity to travel back in time to the Middle Ages and that during the twelfth-century women were superior to men, specifically in their relationships and marriages; however, today men dominant individuals, especially in working world.

Adapting to someone’s piece of art like this is like taking a craft, and altering it or to build off it to produce a new piece of art. Sometimes adaptation mimics the original piece. Other times the resemblance is so slight that it can be considered completely stray from the plot and theme.

To eat or not to eat. In this battle of concocted tales, this is where it all boils down to. Both the Pardoner and the Wife of Bath have surely produced fine stories, each with their own charm; however, it will not be a battle without a clear winner—only one can enjoy a free meal. Although the “Wife of Bath’s Tale” tapped into a strong topic—gender equality—it only stated that women want to be equal to men as well, but never delved in deeper. The story even disregards the problem at hand: a knight who raped a girl and got away scot-free, even finding himself a beautiful and loyal wife. If the story went differently, the “Wife of Bath’s Tale” has all the components of a great story. Meanwhile, the “Pardoner’s Tale”, although short, successfully showed the corruptness that humans have, as well as the consequences if ever one finds themselves stuck in greed’s vice grip. Therefore, the Pardoner’s tale is better than the “Wife of Bath’s Tale” because it delves into the darkness of humanity, the consequences when one has dug themselves too deep and shows how, despite people knowing the result of their misconduct, will still choose to sink further into darkness.

Women were also expected to maintain their social positivity and kindness by never speaking or listening to evil about other women. Men hearing these women speak evil would appear to “listen gladly” but ultimately “hold such women in small respect” and “esteem them so lightly as to despise their company” (177.) From the accounts held in The Courtier of women in the Renaissance, it can be said that women were almost considered to be “status symbols” during this time period. Some men aimed to treat women with courtesy and respect but never viewed them as true equals. Women were expected not to make a fuss, not to speak up too loudly, and to act positive and apolitical at every turn, resulting in a stifling lack of agency. As a whole, women were expected to be seen and not heard, ultimately having a scarce role in the era. Even still, misogyny and hatred was ubiquitous in this time period.

Marie de France lived in a time when social graces were paramount to a good reputation, lordships and to securing good marriages. A woman was considered less valuable if she lost her virginity; a wife was subjected to her feudal lord, father, brother or son after her husband’s death. According to Angela Sandison’s article “The Role of Women in the Middle Ages”, this was because in the Middle Ages the Church and the aristocracy controlled public opinion and the legal system. These authorities of the times believed a woman’s place was in a submissive role to a man. In The Lay of the Nightingale, we will see how this social and religious hierarchy will impact the behaviors of the three people involved.

The contrast of the two stories, The Knight’s tale, and the Wife of Bath’s Tale, by Geoffrey Chauser, is by the chivalric romances, which have the elements of, based from our previous discussion, wise and just leader, an unattainable woman, a monster / dragon / mythological creature, involvement of destiny, fate, chance, and god, and many more elements that were discussed. The Wife of bath’s tale is a chivalric romance because, first it has the element of a wise and just leader, like the queen, because a queen can also lead a country, just like the Queens of England, Victoria, Mary and the Elizabeths, but the society on medieval times look into women just as a product to be used, because this was stated in the first few parts of the story,

    It is common when considering The Canterbury Tales to discuss how some tales seem designed to emphasise the themes of others. Two such tales are the Miller's Tale2 and the Knight's Tale3.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem The Canterbury Tales a young Chaucer tells of the people he meets on a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas Beckett in Canterbury. One of the most vivacious characters on the pilgrimage is The Wife of Bath. Both the Wife of Bath’s prologue and tale share a common theme of a woman’s control in a relationship with a man. The Wife of Bath and the old hag in her tale share a similar perspective on what women want most in life. In the prologue and tale the reader is exposed to the idea that what women most desire in life is to have control over their husbands and lovers. This tale and its prologue are linked through the way that Dame Alice, the Wife of Bath, fashions the old hag in her tale after herself.

In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” the knight comes across women that say they desire a man that has wealth, honor, or even to be widowed (926-928) as examples of what women most crave from men. But that is one of the common misunderstandings different sexes have against each other. You can’t ask one female to speak for all females because we don’t all think the same. Most women or men want someone who is ambitious someone that is honest and has very strong murals. In

Everyone has a story. Certainly Chaucer believes so as he weaves together tales of twenty nine different people on their common journey to Canterbury. Through their time on the road, these characters explore the diverse lives of those traveling together, narrated by the host of the group. Each character in the ensemble is entitled to a prologue, explaining his or her life and the reasons for the tale, as well as the actual story, meant to have moral implications or simply to entertain. One narrative in particular, that of the Wife of Bath, serves both purposes: to teach and to amuse. She renounces the submissive roles of a woman and reveals the moral to her story while portraying women as sex seeking, powerful creatures, an amusing thought

The code of chivalry is an expectation that knights will protect their lords, have courage in battle and respect women (Beck 365). The aftermath of the affair between Sir Launcelot and Queen Gwynevere ended in the loss of two great knights and a war that sparked more conflict. That was all brought on because Queen Gwynevere wasn't faithful to her husband, King Arthur. Sir Lancelot's love for Queen Gwynevere is the reason he broke the code of chivalry. The lady of the manor repeatedly tempted Sir Gawain with riches, and he passed, except when she offered a sash that would save his life. When he took the sash, that was the moment that he failed the test of the Green Knight and the dishonored the code of chivalry. The women in these two stories may not have been one hundred percent responsible for the knights breaking the code of chivalry, but in the long run caused much worse events than the breaking of the code of

Didactic literature is a work of writing that has been around for many centuries. It can come in all types of forms- novels, plays, poems, etc. The main similarity that all didactic literature have in common is their message. They all aim to impact their audience with a message or moral that usually involves religion, philosophy, history, or even politics. In a way, didactic literature always tries to improve a part of society in a moral basis.

Literature from the medieval times, gives a stereotype that women are promiscuous, manipulative, wicked, and unfaithful. Treatment of women as promiscuous and untrustworthy goes against the nature of women and who God created them to be. Women are not promiscuous and manipulative as men claim them to be; they are good wives, strive to lead a life of holiness like the blessed mother, and are a helper of man.

Even though the narrator does not say much about the Knights physical appearance, we can assume that the Knight and the Wife of Bath were not identical. The Wife of Bath was a bold face woman with a red hue complexion, "Boold was hire face, and fair, and reed of hewe"(line 458). She was also gapped tooth, "Gat-tothed was she, smoothly for to seye"(line 468) with large hips, "A foot-mantel aboute hir hipes large", (line472).

The medieval church taught that women were inferior to men and that they should be compliant and obedient to their fathers and husbands. Men look down to women as their respect for their ladies are limited as in Canterbury Tales were these women start out as beneath men. These same men who feel the need to arrogate women of their dignity find their fate is later put into the women’s hands. Although a women is taciturn and does not speak out to the men and talk of their animadversion toward the men’s behavior, these same ladies have the power to then decide how these men should serve their punishment for their sacrileges and unruly decisions as in the “Wife of Bath’s Tale”, were after his life was saved by an old lady, in return this old women requested to him to “take me as your wife” (p.138). A women’s love and passion should be approached with appreciation and admiration otherwise being inconsiderate and impassionate will turn a women against a man.