The Wife Of Bath Research Paper

The wife of baths tale takes place during a pilgrimage in the mid-14()0s, during such a time when not all women were ladies but being polite, noble and kind was fundamental at the time of this stories portrayment. The wife of bath's tale depicts a not so spoken element of a widowed women that's in an endless pursuit of pleasure. The first line of the first page states that "Experience, though no authority." Her many men she's wedded has given her a seasoning of knowledge that can't be learned from

Men in the middle ages looked upon marriage as being a disadvantage because they considered wives to be gold diggers in which men would pay for their fancy lifestyle. The “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” was written around the year 1386, by Geoffrey Chaucer who tells a tale about a wife that wants sovereignty over her husbands. Book 18 of “Le Morte d’Arthur,” was written by Thomas Malory, he tells a tale about Queen Guinevere who wanted to follow the traditional role of a wife, who wanted to marry Sir Lanucelot but never could and have happiness because of the tragic that she had. Even though the two women were of the same era, they had different beliefs on the role of a woman like the wife who was a gold digger that married many husbands, the Queen

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.

The knight must choose between a “loyal, true, and humble wife”, albeit “old and ugly”, or a “young and pretty” wife that carries the chance of unfaithfulness and falseness (291). The Wife of Bath would have been on the opposite side of this quandary, having to choose which type of wife she would become. She shows a basic understanding of the teachings of the Bible on marriage, when referring to Paul

The Wife of Bath starts by explaining herself as “Experienced, though no authority”. She considers herself as experienced because since the age of twelve she’s been married but not with the same husband. She’s had five husbands throughout her lifetime. The reason why I think she’s been married so many times is because the men didn’t have what she wanted. They may have been good to her but they may have not met her needs. The Wife of Bath looks at life in a different way. God says women are supposed to make more life such as children. This may be another reason why she has had so many husbands. God try’s to explain to her “that only once in life” should she be wed. Instead of listening to God & taking his authority she ignores his authority. This is an example of her acting as if she as no authority. When explaining the Wife of Bath she can be explained as a knowledgeable person that’s does what she can do find happiness in a man that is wealthy,

Additionally, The Wife of Bath utilizes biblical and classical mythology allusions to justify why women should be relieved from the expectations of sexual purity. In fact, she makes over 30 references to the Bible, or to Greek and Roman mythology to help expound on her point. At first glance, her arguments are persuasive and seem quite substantial, but upon deeper reflection, almost all of them lack a trustworthy and foundational basis. One interpretation of this, might be that the Wife of Bath is intentionally twisting scholarly information and biblical texts out of context, to deride and parody religious scholars, like the Friar, who may twist and convolute texts in their own favor. Even without approval from external sources of authority,

The Wife of Bath is one of the many pilgrims introduced in the General Prologue of Canterbury Tales. She is a talented weaver, and it is evident she is wealthy due to the many trips she has taken to Jerusalem and other lavish locations. She knows a great deal about men and love, mainly because she has been married five times in her life.

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

that he never went to hell (272). She clearly valued sex as the most important attribute of a husband for, “…in our bed he was so fresh and gay….Heaven knows whenever he wanted it- my belle chose-, thought he had beaten me in every bone…”(272) Even though her final husband had beaten her, because he was good in bed with her she felt she loved him the best of them all (272). Clearly, The Wife of Bath valued three things in her marriages, sex, power, and money. In her tale we find that power is an important role to women in marriage. A knight, after raping a women is spared by a queen (282) but in order to save his life, he has one year (283) to find, “What is the thing that women most desire”(282)? After searching, he finds no answer but on his way home finds an old women who promises she will save him, he must promise to do what she asks of him after however, and he agrees (285). When he and the old lady meet with the queen, he exclaimed, “A women want’s the self-sovereignty over her husband as over her lover, and master him; he must not be above her” (286). This answer is perfectly inline with The Wife of Baths views, she always wants to be more powerful than her husband. When the old lady says he must marry her, he protests but soon she offers him two choices, he can have her be old and ugly till she dies, but loyal, or she can be young and pretty and take chance that she might not remain faithful (291). He gives his answer to be that she may choose, thus giving her the

The Wife of Bath’s tale suits her prologue because it exhibited her views on marriage and matches her personality. The wife of bath is a self –proclaimed expect on marriage due to her experience. She ignores Jesus’ disapproval of having five husbands, but prefer the command of to go forth and multiply. In her prologue, she recounts how she gained control over her past five marriages and this display that happiness will follow when the women have control. Then her tale further enforces her ideal of this.

The Wife of Bath starts her prologue degrading the Friar and how he does not treat women well. Then she starts “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, in which she talks about the story of a young knight who sexual assaulted a young lady. The young knight was about to get executed by King Arthur when the Queen decided to help the knight out and save him if he could tell her what women truly wanted. The knight left to go on his hunt for exactly what the women wanted. He asked many women and they came up many different things each of them wanted. One day the knight ran across a foul, old lady. This old lady said she knew exactly what all women wanted and she would tell him if he promised to do whatever she pleased when the time came. The older lady told the

The Wife of Bath consistently uses her own interpretations of the Bible in order to explain the logic behind her actions. The prologue of the tale serves as a means for the Wife of Bath to attempt to explain the reason as to why she has wed so many husbands. On the surface, Chaucer writes her in such a way that portrays her to be strong and radical. Although her explanations seem articulated, they are all nearly related to her odd interpretations of the bible. As she describes her frequent marriages, she uses various biblical characters in quoting, “each of them had more than two wives.” (Chaucer 56-57) In another attempt to clarify her position, she refers to Christ in teaching all of his followers to lead a life similar to his. While she recognizes this, she denies this message was for her and states, “I will use the flower of my life in the acts and fruits of

A middle aged man dressed in black clergy robes spoke to a woman of similar age wearing simpler robes.

The Wife of Bath is a wealthy and elegant woman with extravagant, brand new clothing. She is from Bath, a key English cloth-making town in the Middle Ages, making her a talented seam stress. Before the wife begins her tale, she informs the audience about her life and personal experience on marriage, in a lengthy prologue. The Wife of Bath initiates her prologue by declaring that she has had five husbands, giving her enough experience to make her an expert on marriage. Numerous people have criticized her for having had many husbands, but she does not see anything immoral about it. Most people established negative views on her marriages, based on the interpretation of what Christ meant when he told a Samaritan woman that her fifth husband

In the Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath gives the reader an understanding of her stance on marriage and how she perceives the world. Throughout her five marriages, the Wife has learned a great deal. As her marriages progressed, there is a shift in power both physically and emotionally. Throughout her marriages she has a sense of authority and uses it to her advantage to gain satisfaction within her relationships. Historically the man is portrayed as the head of marriage, but the Wife of Bath shows that is not always the case.