The Canterbury Tales And The Wife Of Bath

    The Wife of Bath's extraordinary prologue gives the reader a dose of what is sometimes missing in early male-written literature: glimpses of female subjectivity. Women in medieval literature are often silent and passive, to the extent that cuckolding is often seen as something one man (the adulterer) does to another (the husband). Eve Sedgwick argues in Between Men that in many literary representations, women are playing pieces or playing fields in struggles between male players. By default it seems, male writers cannot help but create shallow constructions of women; heroism occurs in male spheres of activity, while the wives and daughters make the background, and

One of the most memorable pilgrims of The Canterbury Tales, as well as one of the most memorable women in literature, is the Wife of Bath. She is a "lusty and domineering" woman who is proud of and outspoken about her sexuality and believes that a woman should have sovereignty in a marriage (Norton 80). She is also extremely blunt and outspoken about her ideas and beliefs. Despite being a woman of the fourteenth century, her ideas, beliefs, and behavior are more like those of the twentieth century. For these reasons, she seems true to life even today. However, her ideas, beliefs, and behavior are not at all representative of the women of her time. Women in the Middle Ages had more freedom

The wife of bath’s tale shows how the partriarchy plagued chilvary. It also shows the expectation women had in their relationships and how men were

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 Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer, is a collection of stories in a frame story, between 1387 and 1400. It is the story of a group of thirty people who travel as pilgrims to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Thomas Beckett. The pilgrims, who come from all classes of society, tell stories to each other to kill time while they travel to Canterbury. In the Prologue, it states Chaucer intended that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. He died before he had a chance to finish his project; however, he did manage to complete twenty-four of the tales including the one supposedly told by the Woman of Bath. The rather promiscuous Woman of Bath

"Let the rest of us use our gifts as best as we can," said the Wife of Bath. By that being said her gift is her sexual powers, which she uses to control her husbands. She believes that women should be in control of the relationship. She had been married to five different men, she claims to be an expert on marriage. She is a very pretty, and wise lady. Who most of the time gets her way. She tells her prologue and her tale to the pilgrims to get her point across, that she is an expert on marriage and knows what women truly desire.

In The Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath gives an in-depth look on her life and understanding on the world as she perceives it. During her Prologue, we learn that what she calls experience stems from her first three marriages, but during her last two there is a shift in power. The Wife of Bath demonstrates her understanding and power throughout her first three marriages both physically and emotionally and the contrast of her lack of control in her last two, thus revealing the true meaning behind what she believes is experience during these marriages. The Wife of Bath’s authority can be viewed as realist when paralleled to the chain of being because of the emotional control she has over her previous husbands and the simple fact that she

The Wife of Bath’s Tale plot is a basic set up with exposition, rising action, complication, climax, suspense, and denouement. The exposition starts out with the knight finding what most women desire. Then goes onto the rising action of finding an old women, who knows the answer to the queen’s question, but faces complication when the old women forces the knight to marry her. The climax is when the old women gives the knight two choices, an ugly faithful women, or a beautiful unfaithful women. Then faces suspense when the old women is allowed to choose the women she wants to be, but then faces the denouement when the old women is pleased with the knights response.

1B: The Wife of Bath’s story expressed the role of a woman in a male dominated world that possessed characteristics of the opposite gender. It is a very interesting self-described story of her expertise of marriage, boasting of her manipulative submission of men; she was able to convey dominance but also often contradicted herself through personal descriptions and her tale, which consequently reverts to the male oriented nature of the era. Alison, the wife, constructs her reputation as the expert of marriage by detailing her relationships with her husband. She proudly reflects of her control over these men, the power she holds however, is built through deceit. The Wife of Bath story, in the end, reverts to the patriarchal society in which a female’s primary role is to see to the needs of men.

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

In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, the Wife of Bath is one of two storytellers whom are women. She was a gap-toothed, respectable woman who was well-known around the town of Bath. The Wife of Bath has not only lived with “five churched husbands bringing joy /and strife”, but has a substantial knowledge of the world -- the lands and means of it (Lines 460-461). She has been on multiple pilgrimages including three to Jerusalem, portraying her as a pious yet adventurous woman. Having roots in Bath, a large English cloth-making town during the time period, it is no surprise that she has profound seamstress skills, and a good taste in her own wear. Her refined attire including hose of “the choicest scarlet red,” reveals her lavish spending

They have to determine which is the best and whoever has the best story, wins the feast. Well, Im not a story teller to start off with so I am definitely not partcipating. The first that was told was the Pardoner’s. From what I have heard, the Pardoner is a poor farmer who is generous. As I write in my journal about my upcoming plans once I arrive in Canterbury, listen closely about the Pardoner’s Tale. As I listened to the tale i began to envison myself in the story , watching what was happening. I began to rewrite his story in poem form in my jounal so I can always read it. “Drowning in our beers, Blurting insults, we have no fear”, I started to write. The guys in the pardoner’s tale must have been greedy enough to kill each other over money. “Not me” i said to myself. “I dont even have the drive to kill someone, let alone over money” I thought. “They can keep the money, life is more important” I

CT pilgrimage was from London to Canterbury. 31# travelers were to tell 4# stories each on the journey. Purpose was ______________________. Characters from CT:

The Wife of Bath is during the time period in which King Arthur ruled, when the land was full of fairies and elves. The friars, also known as “beggars”, started to appear throughout the countryside and soon took their place. The women here were unsafe because the friars took advantage of them as lines 55-56 implicate: “There is no other incubus but he,/So there is really no one else to hurt you/And he will do no more than take your virtue.” Long ago, during King Arthur’s day, there was a rather lustful knight that came in on his horse from the river. The knight came across a ravishing maiden walking alone. He could not help himself,

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.