Wife of Bath vs. the Pardoners

The Wife of Bath is a complex character-she is different from the way she represents herself. Maybe not even what she herself thinks she is. On the surface, it seems as though she is a feminist, defending the rights and power of women over men. She also describes how she dominates her husband, playing on a fear that was common to men. From a point of view of a man during that time period, she seemed to illustrate all of the wrongs that men found in women. Such as a weak parody of what men, then saw as feminists. The Wife of Bath constantly emphasizes the negative implications of women throughout the ages. She describes women as greedy, controlling, and dishonest.

The Wife of Bath’s Tale in the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a very pivotal point in the text. It argues in favor of feminine dominance in marriage in a time where women were always under the skeptical view. The leading example of the medieval skeptical view of women is St. Jerome’s response against Jovinian. It shows how women were more restricted than men and thought to be in the fault for the wrong things that happen to them. Chaucer opposes that stereotype by introducing the Wife of Bath, a very radical character just like the other characters in the Canterbury Tales. The Wife is a very outspoken feminist and justifies her decision to remarry four times. She uses St. Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians and other arguments to undermine the traditional antifeminism arguments, such as St. Jerome’s, against her remarriages.

. . [and] in both cases the character's lives are at stake because of something they have done” (website 3). However, the Wife of Bath’s tale deviates from its source material in that the knight from the Wife of Bath’s tale “gets into his predicament by raping a young maiden. In "Dame Ragnell," King Arthur is accused of giving Sir Gawain land that belongs to someone else, Gromer Somer Joure” (website 3). Chaucer chooses to change the crime that is described in the story because the crime of rape aligns more with the feminist theme of his tale than the confusion over property rights does because rape is a violation of a woman’s sovereignty over herself. The other reason that this section of the story supports the Wife of Bath’s feminist message is because of the nature of the task that Queen Guinevere gives the knight, which is actually derived from the legend of “The Wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle”. The Wife of Bath’s tale and the Arthurian legend from which the tale is derived have “crimes [that] are completely different, yet they still warrant similar

Elizabeth IniguezMrs. Alana HaughabooSenior English September 15, 2015Annotated Bibliography Shead, Jackie. " 'The wife of bath 's tale ' as self-revelation: Jackie Shead discusses how far the Wife 's Tale perpetuates the picture we have gained of her from her Prologue." The English Review 20.3 (2010): 35+. Literature Resource Center. Web. (SUMMARY) The story centers on marriage roles and powers. Men do not want to be governed by their wives. The knight lets the poor and unappealing lady decide for them. From the beginning of the story, it shows that women have a power in their marriage. (ASSESSMENT) This article was found in AVL. (REFLECTION) This article fits into the research paper because it deals with the role of a woman and want she wants. The source was helpful to me it helped me understand the story better. I could use this source describe how the women is the head of the marriage, even though she was old and unappealing. QUOTES: 1. The Tale therefore demonstrates from its beginnings a concern with female power and control over men, such as we see in the Wife 's Prologue. It is less interested in punishment of sexual transgression than with male submission to female witches. The quest, and its outcome, is a salutary lesson to males about not overriding women. This is further emphasized by the way the knight must seek help from females, who are defined, by the very nature of the quest, as 'the experts. 2. She used her body to control her husbands and to gain

“A happy wife is a happy life.” This saying has been used for decades by both husbands and wives. When thinking about it, it makes sense. If a woman is happy with her marriage, then she treats her husband better, which has a good influence on his life as a whole. Sometimes it takes men going through obstacles to realize this. In the Wife of Bath’s Tale the knight goes through many difficulties to finally change and give his bride sovereignty; the Wife of Bath’s Tale corresponds with the beliefs discussed in her prologue.

The Canterbury Tales” is a collection of twenty four original stories written by the one and only Geoffrey Chaucer published in seventeen forty eight. Mr. Chaucer’s frame story consists of thirty people who travel as pilgrims to England, also known as the wonderful Canterbury. As you can imagine, the journey to Canterbury is lengthy. The characters decide to kill time by unfolding tales stringing from different layers of society. Within every story holds its’ own wistful meaning. There are lessons embedded in every two stories to and from Canterbury. Especially “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” and “The Pardoner’s Tale”. Told by an evil preacher and a very lustful, beyond used up wife. Now usually preachers have a great reputation. Thought to be all

“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is an extremely interesting tale to read because it stirs up curiosity in the reader. It can be argued that Alison, the Wife of Bath, is fighting against the social norms in the male-dominated society that she lives in. “The Wife of Bath,” however, is not a tale about medieval feminism, and it doesn’t reflect current feminist attitudes of today. Alison’s character may be misleading because in the tale she is using her body to control and deceive men, but her actions are simply a way for her to gain exactly what she wants. She is a user of men, not a fighter of them.

In “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” and Tale” of The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer experiments with the role of the female voice to demonstrate the presence of matriarch and effect of women’s oppression and suppression. The Wife of Bath’s actions, conduct, and judgments are not suited for a female character of her era. This is exemplified through the Wife’s appearance and behavior; they are indicative of her characteristics and attitude toward her social status. It is also evident in her marriages; she manipulats her husbands to dominate their roles and assets. The Wife also uses biblical references in order to defend and advocate for females to engage with several partners in sexual intercourse. To exhibit such matters and uphold ideas

Geoffrey Chaucer "The Father of English," is best known for his literary work "The Canterbury Tales." In which his most realistically developed character is The Wife of Bath. In "The Canterbury Tales," the Wife of Bath's Tale has been seen as controversial because in the middle ages woman had no say in anything including marriage. She considered herself "an expert as a wife," (Chaucer, l. 12) and on marriage because of her past experiences in five marriages. She believed that a marriage controlled by the woman is a happy marriage, and her beliefs on marriage are directly connected to the tale she tells.

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.

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 Canterbury Tales is a Frame story written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 1386 in the 14th Century. The Canterbury Tales tells the story of twenty-nine people who travel as pilgrims to Canterbury, which is located in England. The Wife of Bath was one of the thirty pilgrims who joined in on the pilgrimage. In the Middle ages,

The relationship between the “Prologue to the Wife of Bath’s Tale” and what is told of her in the “General Prologue”, and the tale itself is that each of tales gives a different point of view on the situation with the wife.

The Canterbury Tales is a story that incorporates a multitude of stories told by a multitude of characters. Written by Geoffrey Chaucer, he devises a novel in which each character has to narrate a total of four stories as part of a competition; on their way to visit Saint Thomas Becket, the characters would tell two stories going and two stories returning from the journey. The perspective changes through each story, and each story is introduced by a general, opening, third person prologue. Though many of the characters got to share some ideas, Chaucer unfortunately passed away before his story’s entirety. As a result, a winner was never officially clarified. Needless to say, it is evident that the clear winner would be the Miller’s Tale.

In all the tales we read I saw the aspect of violence in each and everyone, each story has involved some type hostility such as combat, homicide, molestation, and foul. Chaucer includes the sense of suffrage and takes on the approach of violence so that the audience is gripped onto the stories and to get the aspect of pity for that character or characters. The sake of these stories steering near the chaos it has a purpose in which gives the reader intel n detail on the tale told by The Pardoner, The Miller, The Knight, and The Wife of Bath. These four tales have this similarity in violence and each end with a lesson learned or an expected outcome. I believe he includes this condition of aggression because of the time it was written