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An Analytical Essay: The Wife Of Bath's Tale

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American writer Brandon Sanderson once said, “The purpose of storytelling is not to tell you what or how to think, but to give you questions to think about.” The purpose of stories is to entertain readers, communicate, teach, and raise questions. Additionally, stories would not be complete without characters who provide the audience with new questions and perspectives. Numerous stories, such as The Wife of Bath’s Tale, written by Geoffery Chaucer, have characters that provide readers with new ideas, opinions, and perspectives on societal aspects and gender norms. Moreover, The Wife of Bath’s Tale is a story about a knight who is accused of rape and must discover what women desire within one year to save his life. This hunt for an answer ends …show more content…

The Wife of Bath exudes confidence while embracing her desire for control. Additionally, it is stated in the story that she had been married five times before and was said to be proud of the experiences. To further illustrate, the article “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” written by Emma Lipton states, “...She is proud of her marriage experience and believes the more she marries, the better she is… .” The article also states that The Wife of Bath believed men used power, money, and religion to control women, so in exchange, she would use her body and sexuality to control her husbands (Lipton). Moreover, The Wife of Bath is someone who can be depicted as self-assuring and empowering while further challenging the notion that women should be submissive in …show more content…

One of the primary aspects of the Wife of Bath's character that shows her assertiveness is her sexual liberation and her beliefs in female empowerment. Throughout the story, she openly discusses her multiple marriages and previous sexual experiences, all of which challenge the societal norms of her time when women were expected to be chaste and submissive. Additionally, In the textbook, it is stated that The Wife of Bath firmly believed it is within her right to control her body and desires saying: “In wfhod I wol Use myn instrument as freely as my makere hath it sent” (Lines 585-86). Further, she asserts her authority in marriage by influencing her husbands and using her knowledge of men’s desires to gain power over them. Finally, through her narrative with the knight, she challenges patriarchal norms and advocates for women’s ability to reign over their lives. Nevertheless, the Wife of Bath’s assertiveness is reflected through her outspoken and confident persona as she actively expresses her opinions and desires as well as takes control of her

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This quote suggests that the Wife of Bath believes all women are incapable of keeping a secret, which is an untrue and harmful stereotype. Her main opinion on women seems to be that while they wish to appear wise, pure, and good on the outside, it does not mean they are perfect internally and many

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This mockery shows stereotypes in a humorous way in order to attempt to change the way human nature is towards women. The first sentence of the Wife of Bath shows the reader that she relays on experience rather than listening and learning.

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Chaucer characterizes The Wife of Bath as controlling and powerful. The Wife of Bath was a complete contradiction of the typical female, during this time. The average woman was submissive and reserved. Whereas, The Wife of Bath possessed character traits that one would associate with men. Chaucer emphasizes this trait by describing her in such ways one would describe a man.

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She held herself up as a strong woman who could do what she wanted. The Wife of Bath was a cloth maker (high quality) of the middle class who had done very well at her job. She was known as being a business woman and very knowledgeable; wore colorful clothes and scarlet stocking shoes, and is a church goer. The woman has a specific figure that includes wide hips, skinny legs, and a gapped tooth also meaning she was “over-sexed”. The Wife of Bath travels plenty and has visited Jerusalem, Rome, Spain, Cologne, and Boulogne, and rides horses.

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The Wife of Bath manipulated her husbands and lied to obtain her wants and needs. “Yet I tickled his heart because he thought I had such great fondness for him” (Chaucer 395), shows the Wife of Bath manipulating her husband. While trying to make her husband think she cared, the Wife of Bath showed immoral character and manipulated every husband she had. Another quote, “I governed them so well by my rules that each of them was blissful and glad to bring me beautiful things from the fair”(225), shows how she thought she owned her husbands.

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1243 Words | 5 Pages

In the Wife of Bath’s, she broke all the stereotypes Medieval society thought a wife is. She tells the people that being married intercourse is part of marriage and God has made privates parts to make generations, not to waste in doing nothing. Being categorized or stereotyped in Medieval society was hard for married women in the Medieval era because often they were portrayed as disloyal, uncontrolled sexual beasts because of the lack of marriage

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Chaucer writes The Wife of Bath as a character who is superior to her husbands and as a woman who embraces her sexuality to the fullest extent. Through this characterization, she is able to defy the patriarchal society that is threatening to oppress her. She breaks the chains of ownership and finds a way to reverse the gender roles, by instead “chaining” her husbands. Yet, despite all of this, The Wife of Bath still succumbs to the idea that women are only relevant through their physical attributes by not only herself, but Chaucer as

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The Wife of Bath wanted from her five husbands was she wanted sex, “only once should I be wed” in line thirteen and “Now you have five husbands” in line sixteen in the tale The Wife of Bath’s. She was very forceful and demanding to her husbands to make them marry the wife of bath. She is also very bright and her clothes are very colorful more than all of the characters because she is very good at making her own clothes. She is also the most interesting in the story and she was also wealthy with her money.

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The Wife of Bath’s behaviors are questionable but are inherently aided by the social injustices that face women of this time period. The Wife of Bath discloses that for her first three marriages she sought out older wealthy men for sex and money. Her intentions included making her husbands fall in love with her and then making them have enormous amounts of sex until they die. In addition, the wife elaborates on her occasional tumultuous tirades of accusing her husbands of being unfaithful to her. Her uproars chided her husbands into persistently obliging into her every request.

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The role of women in “The Canterbury Tales” were as untrustworthy, selfish and vain and often like caricatures not like real people at all. A character that stood out and did not care on how she was looked at was The Wife of Bath. The wife appears to be more outspoken and independent than most women of medieval times, she became a symbolize for women and her character change the literature world. This tells us a lot about the roles men and women had to be in.

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The Wife of Bath’s strong will

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The wife of bath beliefs that she is an expert on marriage. The Wife of Bath belives that a woman should have the control in the relationship and not the man. The Wife of Bath's "Prologue" she has had many husbands, but mostly favors her latest husband. Her fifth husband was a very abusive man, mostly because she would poke at him and mess with his belongings. To get control of her husband she would act dead after he would punch her in the face, so she would guilty him into giving her over the control

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1047 Words | 5 Pages

The Wife of Bath is displayed as strong, independent, and unconcerned with any social standards she may or may not be held to. When explaining the Wife of Bath Chaucer details,“Bold was her face, and handsome; florid too. She had been respectable all her life, And five times married, that’s to say in church, Not counting other loves she’d had in youth”(Chaucer 14). Multiple clothing items add onto her attitude of self-determination and power, as she is described as wearing a hat that resembled a shield, and sharp spurs on her feet (Chaucer 15). With the Wife of Bath being described as a mistress with multiple husbands, one would expect her to be characterized as a scheming harlot that men should be wary of (as was common in medieval misogynist tales).

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1060 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout her introduction of the tale, and the story itself, we see the Wife of Bath as an experienced, intellectual woman, who despite living in a world of patriarchal power, provides for herself financially, emotionally, and physically. As a feminist icon, she confronts serious social issues that illustrate the subjugation women faced. During her prologue and her tale, it is very clear that the Wife of Bath is proud and not ashamed of her sexuality. She views sex as a good ideal, and argues it, using references from the Bible, that God’s intentions

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The Wife of Bath: An Analysis of Her Life and Her Tale The Wife of Bath’s Prologue stays consistent with the facts that experience is better than the societal norms, specifically those instilled by the church leadership. Chaucer uses the Wife of Bath to display the insanity of the church, but through switching and amplifying their view of men and chastity onto the opposite gender. The church doctrine at the time held celibacy in an idolized manner, forgetting the inability for humans to ever reach perfection, or live up to this standard. They also did not hold women in a high regard at all, again this is where Chaucer flips the role, as the Wife of Bath describes her five marriages in her prologue, essentially describing each as a conquest, where the result is her having all control.

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