The Seven Deadly Sins 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

Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales became one of the first ever works that began to approach the standards of modern literature. It was probably one of the first books to offer the readers entertainment, and not just another set of boring morals. However, the morals, cleverly disguised, are present in almost every story. Besides, the book offers the descriptions of the most common aspects of the human nature. The books points out both the good and the bad qualities of the people, however, the most obvious descriptions are those of the sinful flaws of humans, such as greed and lust.

The Wife of Bath character is a woman who had married five times. Of these five husbands she only loved one. On line 195 of the story she stated, “As three of them were good and two were bad. The three men who were good were rich and old.” She did not marry them for love. She was the

A red light flashes when questioning the authenticity of the Friar. He is distinguished as a festive, merry man who drinks excessively and carouses with several women. He is very money conscious, an excellent beggar, and despises associating himself with the poor or unfortunate. The Friar’s integrity is questioned also by Gower, who writes,

The Wife of Bath begins her prologue by explaining that she considers herself an authority of marriage due to her “experience”; the Wife of Bath says, "Experience, though no authority/Were in this world, would be enough for me/To speak of woe that married life affords;/For since I was twelve years of age, my lords,/Thanks be to God eternally alive,/Of husbands at the church door I've had five” (Lines 1-6). Due to her five marriages, she has often been criticized because others have said that Christ went “to a

The Wife of Bath pursued husbands in a way that did not benefit both sides of the marriage. She clearly admits that she does not show shame from having sexual relations with many different men, as she simply desires sex and riches from wealthy men. Medieval civilizations did not consider this behavior appropriate, as it conflicted with ideas of courtly love and God’s word. She states that, “I am dominated by the planet Venus in my senses, and my heart is dominated by the planet Mars” (Chaucer 626). This statement supports that her body and desires only seek pleasure, while her true soul remains conflicted, unable to truly love. At the end of each marriage she appears as the one who reigns victorious and still willing to remarry: “I boast of one thing for myself; in the end I had the better in every way” (430). The Wife does not have respect for her multiple wedded spouses, and would rather remain happy when they leave her than to flood herself with emotion of sadness.

Ever looked at somebody and thought that they were a terrible person? This is probably because they embody at least one of the seven deadly sins. These sins have been around for centuries and have been used over and over again in many stories. Some of the best examples of the deadly sins are found in the characters of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. These characters, the pilgrims, vary in profession, personality, and background; most being guilty of at least one of the seven deadly sins. Continuing, Chaucer’s pilgrims will be exposed of their deadly sins that they are guilty of, each with an explanation.

The wife of baths Yale by Geoffrey Chaucer depicts the secret life of a "well educated" widow and her desire to lust and love with many and all men to her likings . The second tail is from a Morte D' Arthur, by Thomas Malory. In this story Arthurs wife Queen Guinevere also shares lustrous characteristics as the wife of bath. Both these ladies share an acquired taste for forbidden love that is not socially acceptable. During the times of knights and crusades, adultery and unfaithfulness wasn't committed like now or even performed, because no law was higher than the church and such actions were a sin. The actions of the secondary characters to the main characters creates conflict cause by these women's actions which these stories compose of the secret love between and sir Lancelot, and the wife's pursuit of pleasure. In the wife of baths

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a collection of stories by a group of pilgrims who are heading to Canterbury Cathedral. In this book, the pardoner and the reeve show antipodal characters in many ways. The pardoner is beautiful blonde hair man who is being loved by everyone. However he is very corrupted and smart and sells fake religious stuff to people saying very good compliment. On the other hand, the reeve is very serious and honest business man. He is very smart enough to know what criminals think and do. The pardoner story-tells a great example (or tale?) of seven deadly sins and reeve’s story is mocking of the miller. These very different characteristic men tell story telling that human beings are always punished for

     During the time period in which Chaucer wrote The Wife of Bath women were most commonly seen as prizes won by men. They were treated merely as objects of housework and sex. Although, women of Homer’s time period were not degraded as severely, both periods did not allow the due respect women should have received. The Wife of Bath is an exact antithesis of this view. The Wife of Bath, known as Alison, is the complete opposite of the typical woman of that time. In fact, she acts more like the husband in the marriage. She tells stories of how her first three husbands suffered greatly at her hands. Alison also goes on to describe how

There were only two female storytellers in the book. One was “Wife of Bath,” and other was “Prioress”, but Wife of Bath have more experience under her belt than Prioress. Wife of Bath has traveled many places in the world for pilgrimages. Not only has she seen many different people and place, but also she was married for five times. She sees the world and experiences that she had, in the world in two way, which is love and sex. To support her view of love and sex she uses her twisted understanding of the Bibles and from The Canterbury Tales (and The Wife of Bath’s Tale specifically) she states that, “All I know for sure is, God has plainly bidden us to increase and multiply” (page 150). In the “Wife of Bath’s Prologue” in the “The Canterbury Tales” by Chaucer, The Wife of Bath presents a very confusing portrait of a woman in the book. On one hand, she was very vocal about her sexual life and how she uses her sexual powers to

The Wife of Bath's actions also stem from her strong greed and need for control. That particular husband, her fifth one, was the only one she could not control. The desperate guilt he feels after hitting her, puts her in an excellent bargaining position. While lying on the floor she puts on a dramatic act of self-pity to make him feel even worse, and later describes: "He gave the bridle completely into my hand" (219).

The Wife of Bath contains three issues that were pretty extreme for the women of the time period. The negative connotation linked with the women and sex is the first one, the second is the position of husband and wife in marriages that leave the women submissive and the men in control, and third is the violence done by men to women. The seriousness of these issues were not discussed at all by men and most certainly not by women. The fact that the Wife of Bath brought up such issues and promoted the ideas of women in these situations was profound. The wife is smart in her delivery in both the Prologue and Tale. The Tale restates all of the subjects of marriage, violence, and sex that she first brings up in the Prologue, and

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 Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer comments on moral corruption within the Roman Catholic Church. He criticizes many high-ranking members of the Church and describes a lack of morality in medieval society; yet in the “Retraction,” Chaucer recants much of his work and pledges to be true to Christianity. Seemingly opposite views exist within the “Retraction” and The Canterbury Tales. However, this contradiction does not weaken Chaucer’s social commentary. Rather, the “Retraction” emphasizes Chaucer’s criticism of the Church and society in The Canterbury Tales by reinforcing the risk inherent in doing so.