The Wife Of Bath Dialectical Journal

In the stories of The Wife of Bath and Queen Guinevere from the tale of King Arthur, both women of nobility and are strong characters. The Wife of Bath is a woman who likes to be known in the upper class and enjoys and parties. Queen Guinevere “is more passionate and caring,” she takes her royal status for granted. In the Middle Ages, these two women did not fit the idea of how women were to act or think towards their roles as women in that time period.

the two sides of himself, causing him to do terrible things and not even be aware of it. The theme

This is all proven through the many ways she portrays her characters. The wife of Bath desires the obvious in life, but what she desires most is being more powerful than her husband. In a relationship, she wants to be the dominant of the two, the one who is in control and takes the decisions in the relationships. This is shown in her tale when no women in the assembly disagreed with the knight's reply (and certainly not the old hag). There is another example of the desire for power of the women in a relationship. The old hag, after marrying the knight, gives him the choice of which women he rather have. The knight leaves the decision up to the old lady and is rewarded. The wife of bath desires to have a husband that is meek, young and fresh in bed. This desire also leads her to become envious of her charters in her tale. The Wife of Bath is jealous of the old hag in her tale because the old lady has the power in the story. However in the wife of baths true life, she didn't always have control in her relationship with her fifth husband.

"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.

After all, her wealth allows her to be financially independent. Clearly, she is also not restricted in her movements, as she is allowed to travel around the world on various pilgrimages. Furthermore, her strong desire for sex can be interpreted to mean that she has taken control of her sexuality. Instead of being a passive object of men’s desires, she is pursuing her own pleasure. From this perspective, the Wife of Bath is clearly a symbol representing the liberation of women. However, as Chaucer elaborates more on her character in the Wife of Bath’s prologue, this image becomes muddied as many of her character flaws come to light.

In the Wife of Bath it's that men don't want to be controlled and in the Prioress it's the fact that she is unobtainable and maybe too clever for everyday man. These representations however when put together, create a women that seems to be perfect for what most men want and

Beginning in the mere introduction of her tale, it is obvious that the Wife of Bath uses her sexuality to her own advantage rather than using to it to prove her equal status amongst men. She is obviously a strong and confident woman, characteristics which could prove advantageous in a battle for equality between genders. Rather, while she is striking back at men, it is for nothing other than to prove her own worth, not as a woman, but as herself. She is the embodiment of the stereotypical woman, using her sexuality as a deceitful tactic. She carries many characteristics of the

e Wife of Bath is known to be slightly death, materialistic, has a gap in her teeth, has large hips, red face, and is known to have five husbands and is also looking for another husband. She likes to laugh and chat (flirt) and likes to be dressed nicely. She states that God has sent each individual a gift and everyone is good at something. For her that “good at something” is being basically being free and do whatever husbands and wives do. Her story is appropriate with her personality because she tells us a tale of relations between men and women. It is a story of a knight who is supposedly to be loyal, brave, courtesy, honorable, and great gallantry toward women but this knight rapes a young lady. Later on the queen finds out the news and

During this time period, a few women had a very feminist view on the idea of marriage. This is the idea that women should have freedom in the marriage and be able to do the same things in the community as her husband. This also means that in the context of the marriage, the wife should be the most powerful and have control over her husband. This was especially expressed from the Wife of Bath as she speaks of her views in her prologue and her tale. In the Wife of Bath’s prologue, she tells that she has had four husbands before the one she has now and that she is not ashamed of her lack of virginity even as some of the community members look down on her. She doesn’t think it’s fair that “if a woman has more than one husband in her lifetime, she is frowned upon, but it is acceptable for men to remarry several times” (Marcotte). The Wife of Bath wants to have equality as a female in the social aspects of her marriage.

In the prologue, the Wife opens up about her sexuality and thoughts on virginity.The Wife knows that she needs marriage to fulfill her sexual needs and that virginity and abstinence are not for her.The fact that the Wife feels comfortable and confident enough to discuss her sexuality with the group at a time when chastity was important, shows a liking to feminism.The point that the Wife of Bath stresses is woman want sovereignty in their relationships.The Wife states her stance on marriage in “...I’ll have a husband yet/Who shall be both my debtor and my slave” ( vv.55-56 p.96) The Wife switches the status quo of medieval society by claiming the power in her relationships. Although this does not coincide with the current definition of a feminist, the Wife of Bath’s assertion of power and mental strength conveys the ideal qualities of a

Next, the Wife argues “And surely if no seed were ever sown,//From where then would virginity be grown?” implying that if people were not allowed to procreate than virgins wouldn’t even be born. After her twisted explanation in an attempt to exonerate her ways, the Wife of Bath continues to prove she is the stereotypical medieval woman, unable to grasp the real meaning of the Bible and other religious messages. She ends up looking brainless rather than discerning. This character does nothing to exhibit women empowerment or feminist ideals, as I mentioned earlier the Wife uses sex to get what she wants and if she is not getting her way (receiving money for example), she refuses to have intimacy with her then-husband. The only thing she actually has power over is her sexuality, something that starts to decline as she ages. Additionally, her fifth husband, goes on to beat her, yet she says this is the one she loved the most. Even though she struck back, she just ends up fitting the stereotype posed upon her because she is not as sovereign as she acts. The Wife manipulates words from the Bibles to her convenience and getting married (repeatedly) to obtain riches instead of pursuing other more fulfilling ventures to be truly

In all of her marriages she manipulated her husbands and uses her sexuality as a weapon against them in order to get what she wants, which was the upper-hand. She dominated the marriages and had control over the economics, the sexual pleasure, and maneuvered the relationship to her likings. This was contrary to the submissive, obedient, proper, and inferior role that women played in the Middle Ages. Legally, women could do nothing without their husbands, and did not even exist other than as their husbands' property. Even sex could technically only be performed for procreation, not enjoyment (i.e. lust). The Wife of Bath's first three husbands were old and rich, and were willing to do what she wished. In order to get them on the defensive when they got suspicious of her stepping out, she would criticize and accuse them of looking at other women. The fourth husband she married was actually young and harder to control. He possessed a mistress as well as a wife, and shared similar qualities to those of The Wife of Bath. Number four soon died and then rapidly came husband number five. He was twenty years her junior, and was cruel and violent towards her. He never allowed the Wife of Bath have her way, until one day when he struck her so hard on the ear that she fell and appeared dead. When she was revived from her concussion her husband was so regretful that he gave up all authority in the marriage to

Polly Courtney, a very successful writer, named one of her books, “It’s a man’s world, but it takes a woman to run it”. This is a very good example of what the Wife of Bath is trying to tell us in her tale. Although historically the man is portrayed as the head of a marriage, the Wife of Bath shows how that is not the case.

His eyes are large and soft, graceful and hypnotic, Red rimmed and bagged, conjuring feelings of motherhood in women, And immediate jealousy in men. Either way, one could easily lose oneself in them, And very likely, many have. His nose has been broken once or twice, Or perhaps he was born that way,

     Of the many stories he writes the tale told by the Wife of Bath is the most verbal and for its time the most forthright exposition of the role women did not have but could have in that time period. The wife of Bath’s story is fairly general a man is accused of trying to rape a woman and the sentence for this charge is to be hung. The mean pleads and pleads to be acquitted of his charge so the queen of the time says he will not be hung if he finds the answer to a certain question. The question is “What is it women most desire.” He is given one year and one day to find this answer and until the day before his