Women In The Wife Of Bath's Tale

The Wife of Bath's tale is a tale about a knight who rapes a woman and has to be punished by the queen instead of the king. Instead of the queen killing him or jailing him she gives him a chance to go find out what do women desire the most. So he embarks on his journey and never finds the answer, until he runs into an old, ugly woman. She gives him the answer, only after he pledges his troth to her. So, when he tells the queen that most women desire sovereignty and control over their husbands and relationships he is set free and has to marry the old lady. He is distraught later that night so, the ugly woman gives him an ultimatum. She could remain ugly and be faithful to the knight, or she could be pretty and unfaithful. After being torn, he lets her decide, and she decides to be both pretty and faithful. After that, they live happily ever

In Chaucer’s novel The Canterbury Tales each individual tale has a well suited character to tell the tale. Meaning that based on what is learned in the general prolog about each character, it is easy to draw connections between the story teller, and their story. The Wife of Bath’s Tale is told by Dame Alison. She is not only a seamstress but also a very experienced wife. The Wife of Bath’s tale is extremely fitting for Dame Alison to tell because the moral of the tale, as well as Dame Alison’s own morals are the same. They ultimately draw the conclusions that all women really want is power over men in their relationships.

In the Wife of Bath 's tale, the main idea we can get is that women want dominance over men (Chaucer 143). Back in Medieval England, I think it would have been a far fetched idea for women to have dominance over men. For most of history, we see women being a submissive partner to a strong and noble man. Dominance over the noble husband would be a fantasy that a wife could only dream of because she knew it would never happen. If you were to fast forward to the 1900’s, a typical household still consists of a mom, dad, and a number of children. You keep the general idea of the dad going off to work while the kids catch a bus or walk to school. During this time period however, you still don’t see a lot women going out of the house in uniforms because their job is to stay at home and take care of the house. However at this point in time, some women are going out to get an education. By getting an education, it will help give women a better shot at getting successful jobs. Although there is still discrimination against women, they now have the capability to go out and get a job because they have the knowledge to do so.

According to the ancient Greeks, men were superior to women and held more power. This can be illustrated in “The Odyssey of Homer” when Athene gives Telemachos

In the sixteenth century the role of women in society was very limited. Women were generally stereotyped as housewives and mothers. They were to be married, living their life providing for her husband and children. The patriarchal values of the Elizabethan times regarded women as the weaker sex.’ Men were considered the dominant gender and were treated with the utmost respect by females. Women were mainly restricted within the confines of their homes and were not allowed to go school or to university, but they could be educated at home by private tutors. Men were said to be the ones to provide for their families financially. Women were often seen as not intelligent. Property could not be titled in the name of a female within the family. Legally everything the female had belonged to her husband. Poor and middle class wives were kept very busy but rich women were not idle either. In a big house they had to organize and supervise the servants.

Women from the beginning of time have been determined to make their mark in the world of a "so-called" man 's world. Women believed they deserved the right to express their opinions about family matters as well as business affairs. The women in Beowulf and The Wife of Bath Tale have different issues, however they are for all the same reason: be heard by the power dominating sex. In the eighth century men were thought of as being superior to women. In the fourteenth century women played roles that made them feel superior over males. Both poems illustrate how women were used as symbols by powerful men to support their nobility. The opposing dynamics of the feeble women in Beowulf

The Canterbury Tales depict many characters that, although fictionally created by Geoffrey Chaucer, may give the reader the opportunity to analyze and interpret their tales as a way of determining their personalities. The Wife of Bath and her prologue accurately supports this statement, as her intentions become expounded due to her questionable actions. The Wife of Bath exhibits in her prologue that she lacks respect and gratitude towards the men she beguiles into marriage and does so by falsely claiming direction from God. She shows not only deceit towards her many husbands, but also does not possess the ability to care about others before herself.

Do men and women fully understand each other or do their generalizations prevent them from really understanding what the other is like? In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer conveys that it is hard for people to understand the opposite sex. The tendency of being bias towards a specific gender makes it difficult to reach an understanding. The struggle of trying to understand each other is also seen in “News Coverage of a Woman’s Rights Campaign” and “The Men we Carry in Our Minds.”

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.

The Wife of Bath 's Prologue and Tale is about female empowerment it shows strong protagonists. I believe Geoffrey Chaucer used The Wife of Bath’s Tale to advocate for feminism. Chaucer used a strong female character to expose female stereotypes. It was an oppressive time for women in male-dominated society. During the Middle Ages, Chaucer wrote from a woman’s point of view something that was not normal at that time. He set his feminist ideals through the characters of the Wife of Bath and the old woman. He used subtle methods like humor to show his ideals. During Chaucer’s time nobody was used to the idea of women being equal to men, this idea did not exist. Chaucer expressed his ideas in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale by being one of the first to understand and acknowledge a women’s struggle in society, through this tale he shows the difference between men and women and their positions of power. In the Wife of Bath’s Tale, feminism is showed by the knight recognizing and listening to his wife. Chaucer is a feminist for his time because he used humor to mask his unpopular ideas he used these characters to voice his opinions.

. . [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

In Elizabethan times, gender roles were dominant in society. Women were regarded as the weaker sex and were taught from birth to cook, clean, and do similar tasks so they could marry and their husbands would be proud (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”). Women were expected to bear children and take great pride in being mothers (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”). They had few rights; they could not vote, choose a profession, receive an actual education, join the army or navy, or generally provide for themselves (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”). Men, on the other hand, were to provide for the women in their families, make all decisions, and have ownership of the family’s land and home (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”; Petit, “A Look at Male Gender Roles in Shakespeare’s Renaissance.").. The men could vote and all actors on stage were men. In general, men had every advantage in that time period (Ram, Pham, Sok, Hamsafar, and Wilhemsen, “Gender Roles in Elizabethan Society.”; Petit, “A Look at Male Gender Roles in Shakespeare’s Renaissance.").

Why would all of a sudden, the knight change his heart near the end of the tale? Did the

The stereotypical topic of gender roles in early history is the definition of the Elizabethan Era. Since the beginning of time females has been ranked below all male figures in status as well as a work force. Furthermore, the men were known to be the breadwinners for the family whereas the women were meant to stay at home housewife (Sharnette). Throughout history this storetype has evolved, but an average day for a male and female during the Elizabethan Era is rather contrasting. With women having little to none privileges, men being in complete control of the their life in addition to the lives of their spouses and the effects of the imbalance in gender roles on the people throughout that time period are a few to many of how the

In the “The Wife of the Bath,” it expressed the different areas for the theme of the story to be feminism. Feminism is the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes. In this prologue, the tale consisted of a woman who engaged into multiple marriages in which lasted unsuccessfully. This story reveals how feminist icons influence other groups of women to become a supportive advocate. The Wife of the Bath conveys the theme of this tale to represent power in feminism. The character plays an important role of being an advocate to women’s rights. In this essay, the reader will be able to identify how Alyson (Wife of the Bath) is a feminist icon in this part of the Canterbury Tales.