The Wife Of Bath Character Analysis Essay

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.

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

​During the Middle Ages, society was unquestionably patriarchal. The men held all of the power in the marriage, and women were expected to be subordinate and unopinionated. From his book, The Canterbury Tales, it can be inferred that Geoffrey Chaucer did not agree with the accepted ideas of his culture. Instead, he believed that there should be a balance of power between husband and wife. Chaucer used Griselda and the Old Woman, two very contrasting characters, to illustrate his point. In The Wife of Bath’s Tale, the old woman is very clever, strong-willed, and feministic. On the other hand, the character Griselda in The Clerk’s Tale, allows herself to be dominated by her husband and has no sense of self-worth.

The story the Wife of Bath tells is of a knight who rapes a young lady and then is condemned to death by King Arthur. Chaucer then satirizes the male patriarchy by having the queen take ability to pass judgement on the knight from her husband. Arthur allows it thus showing the power of women over men. This foreshadows the course of events that show the knight he is merely a puppet on a string. The queen tasks the knight with finding out what women most desire by the end of the year or he will put to death, “I’ll grant you life if you can tell to me / What thing it is that women most desire. / Be wise, and keep you neck from iron dire!” (Chaucer 910-912). The queen does give the knight the choice between the two. With one of the options being immediate death, it infers the knight is powerless. So, the knight scours the

The female character in “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” and the “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is anything but submissive and has ideas that were controversial in the time period of how power should be distributed between the sexes. In “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”, the wife boasts that she has an authority in regard to marriage as she has had five husbands during her lifetime. She explains how she used sexuality and skills of manipulation to gain power in her relationships and states, “I’ll have a husband--I'm not quitting yet , and he will be my debtor and my slave”(Chaucer 154-155). She explained that her older husbands were easy to handle as they would quickly cave to her wants rather than risk her tantrums on how women were not treating properly. Additionally, once her elder husbands died she would continue to benefit from them as she would be left with an estate substantial enough to ensure her comfort.

Men were expected to be brave and buff, not necessarily weak like the Oxford Cleric in the Prologue. Men were praised if they were knights, and they were expected to be trustworthy and chivalrous. In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” Chaucer breaks this stereotype. The knight, who everyone assumes would be good, attacks a young girl. Chaucer breaks the stereotype again by marrying this same knight to an old woman who is not the prettiest looking. The point of the story is about equality within marriage, and this may not have been completely acceptable at this time that women were trying to make this

In the story “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, Chaucer's main purpose is to show that people can change overtime. Chaucer is showing how the knight was a terrible person and paid for his punishment, but in the end he changes who he becomes. The story says, “He saw a maiden walking all forlorn ahead of him, alone as she was born.” (Chaucer 31-32). At this point he has spotted a young maiden by herself and he approaches her.

How much of a difference was it that the Wife was not even beautiful? "'...I was forty then, to tell the truth. But still I always had a coltish tooth. Yes I'm gap tooth, it suits me well...(Bath 274) '" The Wife when describing herself says she was old and ugly. Her bright clothes and detailed cover chiefs are fake rather than graceful. Her hat is as broad as a small shield. Her clothes are of good quality "fine scarlet reed" and her shoes are "moist and new." She did this to advertise herself and her wealth. The Wife of Bath also made it known that she was not solo on this philosophy. She also believed that women, if they know what’s good for them, could lie twice as well as men can and that all women basically behave the way she does.

Renowned author Geoffrey Chaucer utilizes a satiric frame narrative style to engage the reader in a story of a famous pilgrimage that consists of twenty-four tales, two of which are fragments. Although the original number of tales proposed was a striking 120, Chaucer unfortunately, somewhat suspiciously, died in the year 1400 before he could complete all 120 tales. In Chaucer’s frame narrative, The Canterbury Tales, the outer frame consists of a pilgrimage to the shrine of Saint Thomas of Beckett in Canterbury, England, and the inner frame constitutes the twenty-four tales of the pilgrims on this journey. The array of pilgrims on the journey consists of a cross-section of ubiquitous fourteenth century English citizens, excluding,

Chaucer’s development of the Wife of Bath’s character is multi-layered. He introduces her briefly in the “The General Prologue” but it isn’t until we read further that her character is completely revealed to us. The first snapshot of her is the description of her physical appearance. She is slightly deaf, has a gap in her teeth, and wears heavy head coverings. It is also revealed that she has had five husbands of which we will learn about later on. Her personality is only touched upon with the description of her anger when somebody goes ahead of her during the offering to mass. This touches on the main theme from which her tale is spun. It is also a glimpse of what The Wife of Bath is all about, control.

There have been sons of noble fathers, she argues, who were shameful and villainous, though they shared the same blood. She does not take offense at the insult, but calmly asks him whether real “gentillesse,” or noble character, can be hereditary. Her family may be poor, but real poverty lies in covetousness, and real riches lie in having little and wanting nothing. Finally, he replies that he would rather trust her judgment, and he asks her to choose whatever she thinks best. She offers the knight a choice: either he can have her be ugly but loyal and good, or he can have her young and fair but also coquettish and unfaithful. The knight ponders in silence. The two have a long, happy marriage, and the woman becomes completely obedient to her husband. Because the knight’s answer gave the woman what she most desired, the authority to choose for herself, she becomes both beautiful and good. The Wife of Bath concludes with a plea that Jesus Christ send all women husbands who are young, meek, and fresh in bed, and the grace to outlive their husbands.

Chaucer later tells of a sinful church follower that the people call “The Wife of Bath”. She’s earned this name by showing up at the church door to marry a new man on several occasions, and having a promiscuous love life behind closed doors. Chaucer repeats the use of sarcasm by using the word worthy in “A worthy woman form beside bath city”(455) and “A worthy woman all her life.”(469); by doing this Chaucer is noting that shes not a “worthy” woman, and this is what one would suspect of the common person when the most holy and “pure” teachers such as the friar are wandering through dark and sinful times. The Wife of Bath is an epitome of what was thought of the common man in 14th century Europe.

In regard to “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer, the state of the woman in this time period is of debate in this piece of literature; the reader learns who the Wife of Bath truly is and eventually becomes. This is a text concerned with the position of women in society. In my daily ticket, I was focused on the person of the Wife of Bath, herself, not the character in the story, which becomes important when reading the background to the story. She uses her femininity and her body to manipulate men; she is described as “sexually promiscuous” (Brick). In regard to the character in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” the woman (the hag) is not as generalized in means of femininity, which I think is what Chaucer is going for in the text. Comparatively assessing the hag with the young woman emphasizes the gender role in which women are loosely placed in this time period and how women were viewed at this time, whether that is young and promiscuous or old and worthless.

During the 14th century, marriage and the role of women in the marriage were very different from today. Most marriages in the 14th century occurred between an older man and a young girl; a girl is usually chosen because they were pure and could produce the most heirs. The bride’s family would pay the husband through a dowry, consisting of land, money, or anything of high value. The more unattractive the women were, the more the family would have to pay the husband. Right here, women are already being objectified by their looks. Men want a girl who looks pure and untouched, why would anyone want a dirtied girl. Being someone who was not good-looking was an even bigger disgrace since your appearance does not please your husband, you are not doing your job of keeping him happy. Women are often portrayed as an object of men to be bought and fondled with; they are not allowed to control their lives. Geoffrey Chaucer took part in telling the story of how many women acted in the 14th century and how the women were portrayed at this time. Chaucer’s views on marriage are made very clear throughout The Canterbury Tales. He used the five marriage tales: “The Shipman’s Tale," “The Wife’s Prologue”, “The Clark’s Tale”, “The Merchant’s Tale”, and “The Franklin’s Tale” to express his views on marriage, “I was struck most strongly by how much he knew about love, about men and women, by the depth and complexity of an

There is irony in the little cheap whore rising to the defence of her compatriots and country. There is irony in the grand men of society using a women, cajoling her, preaching at her and finally betraying her to sell her body to save their skin. It is ironical that, that most frivolous of women Mathilde who thought only of jewels and clothes, rises above her station even as she stoops to do the most mundane of tasks everyday for a period of 10 years to honor her pledge. Also it is ironical that the two peaceful civilians, who had not gone to war, who chose to spend their money on alcohol even as they starved, who shivered and trembled at the thought of being caught by the enemy, stand resolute and embrace death but do not betray their country. And yet it is not the thought of imminent death but the sight of the caught fish that brings tears to the eyes of the