Wife Of Bath And The Prioress In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

In Geoffrey Chaucer's, The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer narrates the accounts of several pilgrims on their way to visit the shrine of St. Thomas Becket at the Cathedral in Canterbury. Through his narratives, Chaucer presents his audience with a broad representation of life and social class interaction in both the pilgrims and the characters in their tales. Chaucer brings to light various ideas, thoughts, and commentary in regards to medieval society. The two most significant characters who provide the greatest insight into contemporary medieval society are the Wife of Bath and the Prioress. Through both the Wife of Bath's Tale and the Prioress's Tale, Chaucer articulates his opinionated views of the etiquette and conduct of women in the

The medieval period is the period in history beginning with the Renaissance, literally meaning the “middle period” in history. Clothing, tradition, religion and lifestyle were viewed much differently than they are in today’s modern society. The best example of all the different types of people and their lifestyles is Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, in which he opens with a description of twenty-nine people going on a pilgrimage. The way people behave today allows readers to recognize each character's distinct personality. In the “General Prologue”, Chaucer describes the Wife of Bath in a way that is much different than how he describes the other twenty-eight characters. His use of imagery, word choice, tone and rhythm to describe the Wife lure

The Wife of Bath’s Tale features a character that seemed to resemble a feminist. But in Chaucer’s time, feminism was thought to be abnormal and the pilgrims

The only two women most significant and described in detail in The Canterbury Tales who provide the greatest insight into women in medieval society are the Wife of Bath and the Prioress. These two women appear to be similar in the General Prologue of the poem but, as seen through their tales, they are quite unique women and are very different from one another. By looking at the Wife of Bath and the Prioress 's tales, we can see the contrast between their social standards and behavior. However, because of the fact

The Wife of Bath, one of the many characters in Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, is a feminist of the fourteenth century. Chaucer, in the "General Prologue," describes her as promiscuous. The Wyf confirms this claim in the prologue to her tale, the longest in the book. An analysis of the "General Prologue" and the "Wyf's Prologue" reveals a direct relationship between the Wyf of Bathe and the characters in her tale, such as the knight, queen, and ugly woman.

The Wife of Bath’s Tale revealed a woman using her lovemaking to go after rich men and to gain control of her husbands’ wealth. Not only has she seen many lands, she has lived with five husbands. She is knowledgeable in both senses of the word: she has seen the world and has experience in the ways of the world, that is, in love and sex. Many consider Wife of Bath’s as a filthy woman and the way she establishes herself as an authority on marriage, however; the readers do not see the conflict with economic welfare for her family, the security they need, and the learning process to educate daughters to grow up properly. Being a twelve years old girl is not acknowledging as a woman. Why can’t she have her own ways to satisfied what she wants?

In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer assembles a misfit group of individuals representing various social classes and backgrounds, to embark on a Pilgrimage to Canterbury. Though a majority of the characters that partake in the religious endeavor seem “out of place,” the Wife of Bath is arguably the most awkward of the grouping. Her character’s morals do not align with that of the Catholic church, and her social status as a woman of the time warrants her role in the novel to be limited; yet, Chaucer focuses particularly close on her character. This allows for speculation upon what Chaucer was attempting to accomplish by including such a large role for the Wife of Bath. When referring back to the “Wife of Bath’s Prologue” as well as the “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” one realizes that Chaucer is actually casting little to no judgment on the Wife of Bath herself; rather, he is utilizing satire through her character to make fun of society’s skewed feelings toward women.

Everyone has a story. Certainly Chaucer believes so as he weaves together tales of twenty nine different people on their common journey to Canterbury. Through their time on the road, these characters explore the diverse lives of those traveling together, narrated by the host of the group. Each character in the ensemble is entitled to a prologue, explaining his or her life and the reasons for the tale, as well as the actual story, meant to have moral implications or simply to entertain. One narrative in particular, that of the Wife of Bath, serves both purposes: to teach and to amuse. She renounces the submissive roles of a woman and reveals the moral to her story while portraying women as sex seeking, powerful creatures, an amusing thought

control, "we hadde never debat" (P828). She has won this battle of wits, but it

The Canterbury Tales can be understood as a Chaucerian satire according many readers. Chaucer sets out to deliberately upset the social order present at that time and to mock the faults present in the characters. Although he baffles about the complexity of the characters, Chaucer also praises and condemns characters for their unique qualities. Chaucer further gives us feedback of what actions the characters are taking in their lives. Many of the pilgrims are headed off to Canterbury, to worship the relics of Saint Thomas Becket. Thomas Becket was murdered by his friend King Henry and soon Canterbury became a pilgrimage site for people to pray for their healings. As for Chaucer, he observed both high and lower social class to get a

The Canterbury Tales takes place during the medieval society. There were three estates in the medieval society that an individual classifies as including the nobilities, clergy’s, and everyone else. Within the prologue, an introduction is given to each character illustrating both their personal appearance and their personality traits. By doing so, the reader is informed about their place in medieval society. The prologue concludes with a minimal description of the host and his role in the story. The Host is wise and brings up the idea of a competition along their ride to Canterbury. Each person is to tell a story and the person with the best story will receive a dinner provided by everyone else. The Host will serve as the judge and eventually he will be the one profiting from the competition.

The disparity in the outcomes of the hag's marriage and Alison's marriages in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale" depends in part on the women's differing expectations of their husbands. The hag's modus agendi depends on a knight's obligation to honour his pledge, whereas Alison's modus operandi depends on her husbands' conduct after marriage, i.e. on her circumstances. Having saved the knight's life, the hag asks the knight to permit her to be his wife. Moreover, she wants to be his love. The knight must marry, since marrying the hag lies within his might. Since the hag's definition of being his wife includes her loving him, he is duty-bound to

Didactic literature is a work of writing that has been around for many centuries. It can come in all types of forms- novels, plays, poems, etc. The main similarity that all didactic literature have in common is their message. They all aim to impact their audience with a message or moral that usually involves religion, philosophy, history, or even politics. In a way, didactic literature always tries to improve a part of society in a moral basis.

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote about the 14th pilgrim, The Wife of Bath, as a manipulative woman who unapologetically shows off her sexuality making her unfit and deceitful for the middle ages. The story explains the tales told by pilgrims on a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. The story tells tales of both higher and lower class, where the higher class includes nobility and lower includes peasants. This story abides courtly love and makes it humorous, filled with lies making Wife of Bath portray as a fraud.