Roles Of Women In The Canterbury Tales

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

Thus the young and pure would be taught to look at her, with the scarlet letter flaming on her breast, -at her, the child of honourable parents, -at her, the mother of a babe, that would hereafter be a woman, -at her, who had once been innocent, -as the figure, the body, the reality of sin.

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

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.

The Wife of Bath takes on the role of appearing as a stubborn, valiant woman of her time. As a character of The Canterbury Tales, she attracts quite a bit of attention. She lives as a seamstress but remains extremely familiar with the role of a wife. The Wife of Bath has engaged herself in five marriages, making her proficient in the profession of love. She uses her own experiences with her husbands to give others advice. Throughout the tale, the Wife of Bath shows sexual immorality, arrogance, and manipulative characteristics making her an impostores woman.

There are three women in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the prioress, the wife of Bath and the prostitute in the Shipman’s Tale. The prioress and the wife of Bath are the only ones of the three that have a fully developed part of the overall work. They are equal to the male characterizations; the prostitute is only minor player. Women are rarely mentioned in the other pilgrim’s tales. The wife of Bath and the Prioress are examples of strong medieval women. As Chaucer depicts them, they are a departure from the typical sinful daughters of Eve with the exception of the prostitute. The wife Dame Alisoun, and the prioress are both pious, successful females but they are still under the domain of men. Chaucer’s women are still part of the patriarchal world of the late middle ages.

The prologue of this tale showed that the Wife of Bath was not seen as an upstanding woman, nor did she desire to be seen as one. She portrayed feminism, almost as soon as she began speaking in the prologue, she explained that she had gone through five husbands, and she was on the look out for a sixth. She also admitted that she married for money:

Wealth and property feature heavily in the wife’s portrayal of marriage and along with the issue of her independence is responsible for many of her marital conflicts. The first three husbands "riche and olde" were married each for "hir land and hir tresoor" then discarded as the Wife looks for other prospects. When one of these husbands tries to restrict the Wife’s spending she refuses to let him be both "maister of my body and of my good" so refuses sexual favours in return for her freedom as she will not become a mere possession. She generalizes that women "love no man that taketh or keepth charge" suggesting an element of independence and individualism in 14th century marriage. The wife resents being controlled; she

The depiction of the Wife’s appearance and conduct exemplify her standing and the way she is viewed in medieval society. In this patriarchal society, the Wife desires to overtake the masculine role and by doing so, she must reveal herself through her emotions and perspectives though they are subversive to the usual attitude in the medieval civilization she lives within.

The discussion of the Wife’s five husbands describes her evolving role as a woman and how she overcame the most ridiculous obstacles to maintain this idea or illusion of marriage. The Wife’s depiction of her marriages was that three were good and two were bad. The initial marriages were to older rich men where she kept up this idea of marriage in order to receive money, but was not faithful by

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 wife continues on with details of her five marriages to say that she previously had three unfit husbands and two fit husbands. Focusing less time telling about the unfit, she simply focuses her tale to tell of how she believes one should go about marriage- much like a business transaction. “By accepting the reduction of female sexuality to an instrument of manipulation, control and punishment” the wife gets what she wants through withholding sex. (Aers 148). The wife’s character in The Wife of Bath ultimately argues for Chaucer’s skewed representation of love, sex and marriage as seen in the Canterbury Tales.

In the time Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, there was an established hierarchy, much like today. The lives of women have changed rapidly from medieval time to today. Chaucer provides us with a clear perspective of what has or has not changed. In The Wife of Bath, Chaucer addresses the many stereotypes of women and their struggle for equality.

He describes the Wife as a self-confident person who thinks highly of herself and had “been respectable throughout her life” due to her incredible skills as a cloth maker (Chaucer 461). She wore ten pounds of clothing that she wove herself. She loves showing off her cloth making expertise and is not shy at presenting herself in front of other people. Chaucer describes her physical appearance in ways that express a lustful and almost seductive person during this time period. The description of her clothing, legs, feet, hips, and her gap-tooth is an accurate representation of what seemed to attract a man to a lady during this time. She was a very open minded woman who adored the idea of love and marriage which can be proved by her “...five churched husbands bringing joy and strife” (Chaucer 462). She goes on pilgrimages to several different places which gives the impression that she is a devout Christian and portrays her as a religious woman. Chaucer’s description of the Wife of Bath makes the readers think about the other characters in the general prologue and how she is much different than the

This statement demonstrates that the role of women, such as The Wife of Bath’s, was to be a dominant leader of the marriage. She describes her husband as her slaves and debtor,