Geoffrey Chaucer 's Bath And The Miller 's Tale Essay

The Wife of Bath had five husbands, and she believes that women should have all the power in the marriage. This is very important to her tale, and the Wife of Bath shows just how smart she was, manipulating her

The topics of marriage, virginity, and women’s desire of sovereignty are discussed and interpreted by the Wife of Bath throughout her tale. She suggests that women should have complete control and tells how she got the upper hand with each of her marriages. The way to the Wife of Bath dresses shows that she was a lustful person of her time. Her clothing symbolizes that she is not shy or scared, and shows off that she is wealthy. The Wife of Bath shows her views on controlling husbands when she says “...And-Jesu hear my prayer!-cut short the lives of those who won't be governed by their wives; And all old, angry niggards of their pence, God send them soon a very pestilence!”

that he never went to hell (272). She clearly valued sex as the most important attribute of a husband for, “…in our bed he was so fresh and gay….Heaven knows whenever he wanted it- my belle chose-, thought he had beaten me in every bone…”(272) Even though her final husband had beaten her, because he was good in bed with her she felt she loved him the best of them all (272). Clearly, The Wife of Bath valued three things in her marriages, sex, power, and money. In her tale we find that power is an important role to women in marriage. A knight, after raping a women is spared by a queen (282) but in order to save his life, he has one year (283) to find, “What is the thing that women most desire”(282)? After searching, he finds no answer but on his way home finds an old women who promises she will save him, he must promise to do what she asks of him after however, and he agrees (285). When he and the old lady meet with the queen, he exclaimed, “A women want’s the self-sovereignty over her husband as over her lover, and master him; he must not be above her” (286). This answer is perfectly inline with The Wife of Baths views, she always wants to be more powerful than her husband. When the old lady says he must marry her, he protests but soon she offers him two choices, he can have her be old and ugly till she dies, but loyal, or she can be young and pretty and take chance that she might not remain faithful (291). He gives his answer to be that she may choose, thus giving her the

The wife of bath stands up for women equality and does not let men push her around. She had five husbands, with each of them she used a technique to get what she wanted. She would blame them for things they did not do, she would make them buy her things and have complete mastery over all of them. With her fifth husband things become rocky with her having the upper hand in the relationship. This is shown through the book that her husband reads which in that book degrades women. She snaps back into this mode of control and stands up for women by tearing the pages out of this book. The wife of bath thinks women should always have mastery in a marriage,this leads her to realize with her fifth husband women get taken for granted and have a bad

In Geoffrey Chaucer's work, The Canterbury Tales, many travelers gather together to begin a pilgrimage. During their quest, each of the pilgrims proceed to tell a tale to entertain the group. From these stories arise four different tales, in which Chaucer uses to examine the concept of marriage and the problems that arise from this bonding of two people. In the tales of "The Franklin", "The Clerk", "The Wife of Bath", and "The Merchant", marriage is debated and examined from different perspectives. Out of the four tales, The Franklin's Tale presents the most reasonable solution to the marriage debate because the problems are resolved with the least amount of heartache.

Geoffrey Chaucer, the author who composed The Canterbury Tales such as The Miller’s Tale, The Wife of Bath’s Tale and Prologue, and the Nun’s Priest’s Tale. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales displays remarkable diversity in the genre, source materials, and themes such as sex, money, and centuries-old tradition of misogynist writing. The characters presented in the Canterbury Tales each depicts a stereotype of the kind of person Chaucer would be familiar with in the 14th century England. The Wife of Bath for example, had five husbands and three out of her five husbands, she married were “fair, old, rich, and submissive” while her other two husbands were atrocious (Chaucer 287). While she married her four husbands because they had money and were submissive, she married her fifth husband Jankyn, who was twenty years old and she was forty, married him for love, not for money (Chaucer 294,295). As or more important, Chaucer engages the device of narrative framework, the story revolves around individuals on both religion and story-telling. Of these continuous themes, Chaucer uses the connection between man and wife, saying that it is the most eminent topic, but additional themes such as social class, religion, unite groups of characters function through these tales.

An inference that can be made about the Wife of Bath is that she is confident in herself and even her past. The Wife of Bath seems very knowledgeable in love and confident in her beliefs. In “The Tale of the Wife of Bath” she says “If anyone should rub us on a gall, That will not kick because he tells the truth.” This sentence shows how the Wife of Bath is unapologetic when it comes to love and who she is. At the end of her story, she takes the time to ask God to send women a particular type of husband. She says “and Jesus to use send meek husbands, and young ones, and fresh in bed, And good luck to outlive them that we wed.” This quote shows the Wife of Bath is confident in her knowledge of men and love because she believes every woman wants

The Wife of Bath’s tale suits her prologue because it exhibited her views on marriage and matches her personality. The wife of bath is a self –proclaimed expect on marriage due to her experience. She ignores Jesus’ disapproval of having five husbands, but prefer the command of to go forth and multiply. In her prologue, she recounts how she gained control over her past five marriages and this display that happiness will follow when the women have control. Then her tale further enforces her ideal of this.

What I find truly compelling about the Wife of Bath is how her character and role as a wife throughout all of her marriages serves as a stark contrast to the normative ideas for European wives at the time. Through her manipulative tactics, she was able to create a lifestyle profitable for herself instead of serving her husbands. By analyzing her behaviour in comparison to societal norms, it can be seen that she not only defied her role as a wife in relation to her husband, but she defied her role as a wife in bearing children.

The message of this tale is that women should have some control in their lives. The wife of bath was married five times. Even after having five husbands she still believes that it is her choice to be married as many times as she wants and doesn't care about what society thinks.” For then the apostle says that I am free to Wed , in god's name , where it pleases me.he says it is no sin for us to wed” ( pg 200 ). The Wife of Bath refers to the bible to justify her reasoning for being married so many times.

The Wife of Bath is a feisty character who argues against anyone who tells her what to do. She has been married five times and makes the point that “Where can you say, in any kind of age,/ That our high God has forbidden marriage/ Expressly, in a word? I pray, tell me./ Or where did he command virginity” (Chaucer, 683). This is a feminist’s viewpoint of the labeling of women as sluts and whores if they lose their virginity before marriage when men are countlessly seen in literature sleeping with women before marriage and marrying multiple times without any reprimanding.

As she continues on, the Wife of Bath manipulates the biblical scripture to “make her case that God intended women to use their bodies carnally” (Retractions). She does this by saying that “God bad us for to wexe, without lye,/ That gentil text kan I wel understonde” (lines 28-29). She believes that she needs to marry as much as possible because it is what God intended for her to do. Although it is more commonly believed that God was referring to procreation within the limitations of marriage, she deserves credit for creativity. She uses the story of Solomon as a reference to multiple spouses by saying that “he hadd wyves mo than oon” but the interpretation of the Bible at the time was at the mercy of the Roman Catholic Church (line 36). The Church believed that women were the cause of “the original sin or the Fall of Man” based on the actions of Eve (Women History). Women were looked upon as “instruments of temptation and sin”, they were believed to drag “men down by the lure of their physicality”, and were the “instruments of man’s damnation” (Retractions). Though this is not the case, because women are perfect, these negative connotations caused women to lead “extremely subservient lives” (Struggle of female equality). The Wife of Bathes may have been a satirical representation of women being greedy and lustful but her purpose was to contradict “oppressive customs and assert her own overbearing assessment of the

During the prologue of The Wife of Bath’s Tale, the wife discusses her thoughts on roles between males and females within relationships. She discusses this idea by hitting on two different points of view, power and religious ideology. The wife talks about all five of her marriages and how she gained power and control within those relationships by using her body;

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

Firstly, The Wife of Bath differs in her vision of sexuality. She has had many previous husbands, and is on her fifth. The Wife of Bath is a sexual character and has little care for chastity.