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. In the General Prologue, there is much that can be gathered about the Wife of Bath. It is evident that she does not mind flaunting her wealth, for she is described as wearing “ten pounds of linen on her head” to church on Sundays, as well as wearing a hat as big as a shield on a normal basis. It is also apparent that she has been with her fair share of men. Not only has she been married five times, but she
The narrator gives off the impression that the Wife of Bath is a poor woman, "That to the offrynge bifore hire sholde goon; And if ther dide, certeyn so wroth was she, That she was out alle charitee, (lines 450-452). It was possible that the Knight was also poor
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,
The Wife of Bath character is a woman who had married five times. Of these five husbands she only loved one. On line 195 of the story she stated, “As three of them were good and two were bad. The three men who were good were rich and old.” She did not marry them for love. She was the
The woman in the Wife of Bath loves sex. According to shmoop.com The Wife of Bath, “she was a nicely-dressed, largish woman with gap teeth and a hat as big as a boat. We heard hints that she had numerous lovers before her five husbands and that she was a ton of fun to be around because "in felaweshipe wel koude she laughe and carpe" (476). The wife intends to have sex indiscriminately, with no objective but pleasure. Sure she claims she simply looking for pleasure, like when she insists she has always followed her appetite, whether the man were "short or long, or blak or whyt," rich or poor (729 – 730). But her own accounts of her past relationships suggest that the Wife actually treats sex as something that's for sale. She admits to withholding sex from a husband "til he had maad his raunson unto me" (414), and berating another husband by asking him if he knows how much money her body could fetch on the open market.” the Wife may indeed be lusty, she's also strategic. We see this talent for strategy in two places: 1) in her account of past relationships, in which she always manages to get the upper hand, and 2) in her rhetorical technique, particularly in her defense of marriage in the first 170 lines of her Prologue. She sounds authoritative by quoting from well-recognized Biblical and scholarly texts. The Wife of Bath continues to use these techniques throughout her Prologue, and they have the effect of making her really likable, even when she admits to her worst deceptions.” According to what she said she wins her audience over with humor, encouraging them to imagine Solomon on his wedding night, for example, “She's self-deprecating, readily admitting to being less than perfect spiritually”, but she also sounds authoritative by quoting from recognized Biblical and scholarly texts.
In today society husband and wife are leaning more towards being equals. When reading the tale of The Wife of Bath I did not feel like what she was doing was wrong because it happen in today’s society quite often. In the times when the tale was being told the Wife of Bath did what was needed to take care of herself. In that time woman were not educated and didn’t make their own money so they had to depend on their husbands. If she felt she had to leave her husband’s because she wasn’t satisfied rather it was finally or sexually. Men of different religious culture are allowed to have several wives at one time and just because their male that makes it ok I wasn’t able to agree with any of the author’s criticism towards the wife of bath and her actions .If it’s acceptable for me then so isn’t for
The Wife of Bath had five husbands and justifies it by using the Bible. She believed that it was okay to marry more than once, because the Bible never said to just marry one person and one person only. Solomon had more than one wife. “But wel I woot expres, withoute lye, God bad us for to wexe and multiplye: That gentil text can I wel understonde” (27-29). The Bible says “to be fruitful, and multiply” (King James Bible, Gen. 1:28). The Wife’s husbands were all good men, and she was on the search for a sixth husband. She states that Jesus was never really specific about virginity. She also stated that we have the parts for sex and should use them as such: “they were nat maad for noght”
In the beginning before the Wife of Bath shares her tale; she revealed her life story that she had has already five husbands and considered
In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, The Wife of Bath seems to be one of the more cheerful characters on the pilgrimage. She has radical views about women and marriage in a time when women were expected to be passive toward men. There are many things consistent between The Wife of Bath's prologue and her tale. The most obvious similarity that clearly shows the comparison between the prologue and the tale is dominance of both women over their husbands.
The wife of bath’s prologue is much longer than the actual story. The wife is what the medieval church saw as a wicked woman. Her prologue is important because it shows how she took control over her five husbands. The wife of bath could be considered one of the earliest feminist characters in literature.
she has even lived a life with 5 husbands. In this tale The Wife of Bath exprecess her smartness on getting what she wants in life. She loves wealth and high priced objects. She uses her body to get man crazy in love with her. She has many experiences in love with that she has learned to use her body as a tool to receive what stuff that she desires in life. She always gets what she wants by giving sex to her husband's. She believed that her body would help her get through life. According to “Geoffrey Chaucer” (II. 293-297) “Unless thou peer always upon my face, And call me “dear lady” in every place. The wife of Bath loves attention and she loves the fact
The best story i liked the most was the wife of bath out of all of them. The wife of bath story was about a night. He rapided a young virgin and the queen decides his punishment. He has to find out what woman wants to wear the pants. He asked an old lady for the answer, the old lady wants to be the nights lover. The old lady asks him he accept her. She turn into a young beautiful lady and him punishment was broken.
The Wife of Bath, one of Chaucer’s essential parts of his most prominent works, Canterbury Tales, is important for both its prevailing theme and character growth. During the time these tales were written, England was going through a large political and social change. Throughout this tale, Chaucer reversed the standard value of leadership and supremacy. We would expect King Arthur to be the one who serves as justice and to determine the punishment of the knight, but it is the queen and ladies of the court. This tale is told to show what most women wish for. It tells us of most women’s desire to have authority over men. The aged, unappealing lady in this tale, representing the Wife of Bath, is a very envious, forceful, headstrong woman. She may
He describes the Wife as a self-confident person who thinks highly of herself and had “been respectable throughout her life” due to her incredible skills as a cloth maker (Chaucer 461). She wore ten pounds of clothing that she wove herself. She loves showing off her cloth making expertise and is not shy at presenting herself in front of other people. Chaucer describes her physical appearance in ways that express a lustful and almost seductive person during this time period. The description of her clothing, legs, feet, hips, and her gap-tooth is an accurate representation of what seemed to attract a man to a lady during this time. She was a very open minded woman who adored the idea of love and marriage which can be proved by her “...five churched husbands bringing joy and strife” (Chaucer 462). She goes on pilgrimages to several different places which gives the impression that she is a devout Christian and portrays her as a religious woman. Chaucer’s description of the Wife of Bath makes the readers think about the other characters in the general prologue and how she is much different than the
When discussing her many husbands in The Wife of Bath’s Prologue, the Wife lends some insight into her particular method of marriage, boasting:
In the poem The Wife of Bath, by Geoffrey Chaucer, a lustful knight commits a deplorable sin by taking the virtue of an unsuspecting maiden, later caught, the knight is given two options by the merciful queen, to discover what women truly wants or to face death. The knight chose the former option, starting his quest of understanding what a woman desire. Over the course of the poem, the knight amends himself gaining an understanding of women, as he takes on the queen’s ultimatum accepting his faux pas, rather than running away from the court, pursuing the true answer of what women yearn rather than falling prey for the petty and biased stereotypes of women. The knight also changes as he accepts giving mastery of his life and sovereignty to both