Comparing Fairy Tales And The Wife Of Bath's Tale

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.

Triumphant reward in spite of unjust punishment is a universal sentiment that transcends languages and cultures. There are thousands of folktales and fairy tales that are firmly rooted in individual cultures, yet the tale of Cinderella has been told through many centuries and throughout the far corners of the world. With thousands of versions of this classic tale in print worldwide, the tale is believed to have originated with the story of Rhodopis, a Greek slave girl who is married to an Egyptian King. The story of Rhodopis, which means rosy-cheeks, dates back to 7 BC and is attributed to a Greek geographer named Strabo. The Chinese variation of this fairy tale is named Yeh-hsien. The Chinese version is traceable to the year 860 and appears in Miscellaneous Morsels from Youyang by Duan Chengshi. Yeh-hsien is a young girl, motherless and in the control of her stepmother, who befriends a treasured fish. The jealous step-mother kills the fish, but it’s bones provide Yeh-hsien with magical powers, eventually enabling Yeh-hsien to escape the control of her step-mother for a royal life. The Story of the Black Cow which is found within the pages of Folk Tales from the Himalayas by John Murray, published in 1906, the child who is mistreated by a stepmother is a male and the role of savior is portrayed by a snake, with a cow serving as the moral of the story, faithfulness. These two versions of Cinderella carry many common threads that are

Often at times people can feel disconnected from themselves, from the world, or even friends and families; Therefore, causing tension in relationships. Which was displayed in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” when the knight searches all over the world to find out what women most desire in a man. Also in “One Amazing Thing” there are various stories from different characters that have had trouble with personal stories and how one gender or religious belief can be more dominate than the other.

In The Wife of Bath’s Tale and Prologue and The Franklin’s Tale, the central theme is the relationship between man and woman. There are different views of this relationship or marriage in these two tales: either the woman has the power in the marriage granted from her husband, or the husband and wife grant each other power in the marriage so neither dominates.

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.

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.

The Wife of Bath’s Tale in the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a very pivotal point in the text. It argues in favor of feminine dominance in marriage in a time where women were always under the skeptical view. The leading example of the medieval skeptical view of women is St. Jerome’s response against Jovinian. It shows how women were more restricted than men and thought to be in the fault for the wrong things that happen to them. Chaucer opposes that stereotype by introducing the Wife of Bath, a very radical character just like the other characters in the Canterbury Tales. The Wife is a very outspoken feminist and justifies her decision to remarry four times. She uses St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and other arguments to undermine the traditional antifeminism arguments, such as St. Jerome’s, against her remarriages.

The Wife of Bath begins the prologue to her tale by boasting of her experience in marriage. She has married five men already, and ignores the idea that this is a reproach to Christian principles. She is merely adhering to the Christian principle of "be fruitful and multiply." She cites the case of King Solomon, who had multiple wives, and tells the group that she welcomes the opportunity for her sixth husband. She also points out that Jesus never lays down a law about virginity, and essentially states that we have the parts for sex and should use them as such. The Pardoner objects to the Wife of Bath's musings on marriage, but she decides to tell

The structure of the Wife of Bath’s tale in which a story is told within the story itself and the knight’s character develops are key in the tale’s entertainment and telling of its moral. The tale begins with the reader learning of the knight’s predicament - he raped a woman and in order to save his life from the punishment of death he must answer the queen’s question of what it is that women desire most. After elaborating upon the knight’s travels in which he asks numerous women what they desire most, the Wife of Bath, as the narrator, asks, “By god, we women can keep no secret; witness Midas-do you want to hear the story?” (Chaucer, 185). The story then breaks away from the tale of the knight and instead tells of a man named Midas whose wife could not keep his secret of having donkey ears and ended up telling the river his secret. In the time period in which the novel takes place, this short divulsion served to further the moral value of the novel in telling that women cannot keep secrets, however, this is not a moral that would be honored today as women not being able to keep secrets is a stereotype and not a truth. The novel chronologically develops the knight’s character as he begins as a sinful man who had little value for women, and ends as the ideal husband by allowing his wife to control his decisions. Moreover, the knight’s first actions are rather evil: “...despite her resistance, he ravished her” (Chaucer, 184). As the knight comes to learn that women desire to

The tale of the wife of Bath or Dame Alison is well suited to her because of the following reasons, Through the prologue of the Wife of Bath, we learned that Dame Allison knows how to manipulate men with their ideals, in the prologue, she explained her ideals about man, and woman relationship, also, she used some characters from the bible and scriptures to prove her different point of view in her arguments. The same does the ugly wife in her tale when she is convincing he husband about loving her without carrying the fact that she is ugly and poor. For example, the ugly wife explained to her husband about how Jesus being the king of heaven came to earth and choose to be poor. also, she mentioned how the philosophers like Seneca said that you

But the knight asked her to give the answer to this question, at his last day, the knight said that a woman’s greatest desire is the sovereignty of their husbands or lovers, but the old lady forced the knight to marry him as she said that the knight must do the first thing she asks, the knight was forced to marry her, and the knight was forced to but the lady asked the knight which is better, a beautiful but faithless or an old lady, like herself but loyal, and the knight surrendered and the lady suddenly became beautiful because she is actually is / are fairies and because she had the upper-hand or sovereignty. The other elements that can be found in this story are: trustworthy knights, who were courteous and loyal warriors, as there was this knight, ceremonial events, such as wedding of the knight and the old woman, the struggle or contest, often for the hand of the lady, was for me, portrayed to be his struggle for his life , because he spent an entire year searching for the answer and she found the lady, the presence of a supernatural creature can also be seen in the story, because there were 24 fairies that were found, and these fairies turned to an old woman which is quite baffling. I believe that the Wife of Bath’s tale is very interesting and intriguing with the

Most stories are not just stories written to entertain the reader. Intentional or not, writers are often commentating on the world around them. Social commentary is interwoven in the fabric of novels, and it is often up to the reader to determine what they take away from any given work. Although written for entertainment’s sake, stories usually include the social or political views of the author and serve as a platform for their views to be made known.

In order for women to get ahead in the world, the fairy tales say that they have to be with a Prince Charming type figure that has money and is famous. Most of the fairy tales that were made by the Brothers Grimm have royalty as a factor in the main character's happy ending. Whether it is the poor girl marrying a prince or a princess getting the kiss of life, all of the stories end to perfect leaving so many women with their heads in the clouds. They objectify women by showing them what they need to be to have that happy ending, an encounter with royalty.

Fairy tales make an important part of cultural prophecy, because they contain wisdom which is passed from parents to their children. They contain basic moral and ethical guidelines for children. Images and symbols used in fairy tales can help to judge about cultural, ethical, social and moral values popular in the contemporary society. Changes and similarities, which can be found in the popular fairy tale Cinderella by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, version of 1812 and the Disney version of Cinderella (2015), can help to realize the changes in cultures and historical epochs.

Out of all the interesting short stories included in the Canterbury Tales, written by the famously remembered Geoffrey Chaucer, the most extraordinary tale is The Wife of Bath's. The Wife is an older woman who has been married several times, therefore she shares the wisdom she has acquired through the years to tell an eye opening tale. Throughout the story there are various key fairy tale characteristics, which are put in place to teach a lesson and the lesson taught in not ordinary, it's a lesson that will transform your way of thinking.