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The Wife Of Bath 's Prologue And Tale Essay

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Empowered It is no secret that women throughout history have been seen as the less of two halves. In other words, they were always undervalued and held no real political/social standard within society. In fact their only job in society was to be obedient/submissive to their male counterparts. However, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, a poem written by Geoffrey Chaucer, redefine those ideals set upon women. The poem is broken up into two parts one is the prologue which includes a woman who talks about the rules set by the church and society on women. As well as how society looks upon women who live her life style. She counters these teaching by her knowledge of the bible by introducing biblical men who had more than one wife. It is later revealed that her sole purpose for doing this was not only to gain women sovereignty. But, to create an equal plane for both the husband and wife in order to formulate a happy marriage and to prove that a women can decide to be submissive or not. After the prologue comes the women tale, which she talks about each of her five husband and how she uses her feminine charm to control them. As well as a male knight who suddenly finds himself in a very dire situation and is in need of help. The same women, now old, helps the knight in exchange for his hand in marriage. Both the prologue and the tale fixate on the idea of women sovereignty; self government and it purpose to achieving a happy and successful relationship between both
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