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How are women portrayed in literature
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Chaucer’s Portrayal of the Wife of Bath The Wife of Bath presents the reader with a woman who compiles to the stereotypes corresponding with the negative misogyny of women during the medieval times. Wife of Bath is viewed the same as this stereotypical woman. Some can agree with Chaucer’s choice of these negative traits of The Wife of Bath, but the same conclusion is always met. Chaucer chooses to display the Wife of Bath as a misogynistic symbol of negative traits in order to use her as an object of mockery.
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.
From previous evidence in the text, the Wife of Bath explains why only her first three marriages worked, in this quote she use her body in marriage to get her way, she has an obligation to her husband 's, but it has been stated previously that she will use it for her profit and
One inference I can make about the Wife of Bath in "The Tale of the Wife of Bath" is that she is money hungry. In this response I am going to explain why I think she is money hungry. She had given hints to being money hungry, she never fully came out and said she marries for money or some type of goods. One clue the author provides is that she is constantly marrying. Are inferences the same as predictions?
The Wife of Bath and her tale are the most similar out of all the tales because they both share a domineering outlook over others. In the general prologue she is told to have had five husbands and is described as a looker, “Her face was bold and handsome and ruddy,” (Chaucer 39). In her prologue she goes more in depth of her time spent with her five husbands. Wife of Bath talks most about how she gains control over her husbands. For instance, her fifth husband was the controlling force in their marriage until he made the mistake of hitting her and telling her he would do anything to keep her with him and said, “My own true wife, do as you wish for the rest of your life…” (335).
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.
Beowulf and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” are both narratives in which gender acts as an important theme within their individual communities; both have underlying meanings when it comes to defining what the role men and women in a good community should be. Or in other words, both stories paint a vivid picture of the role of women during the medieval time period, by suggesting that one gender had more power over another. However, these two narratives take alternative paths when expressing their views; Beowulf conveys its message through what is missing, while “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” incorporates satire and uses explicit narrative when telling the experience of a woman that is highly different from other women in her time. Furthermore, another difference that is appealing to the reader’s eyes, besides the way the two narratives reflect to women’s role in medieval times, is that men become the hero in Beowulf, while “the wife”, so a woman, becomes the authority figure in the story of “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” I want to first introduce the two main differences between the two narratives and then I will explain how regardless of the differences, both of these narratives’ main goal is to show that women had less power and a good community back that time was male dominated.
The tale told by female narrative point of view, displays individual hopes and dreams of women who are not completely satisfied with the tradition that determines their position in society. The Wife of Bath is shown as one who refuses to accept the destiny of the stereotypical
Imagery is an indispensable literal device in literary world. A lot of poems or novels use imagery to describe a vivid image. It is figurative language which is the description about five sense: touch, hear, smell, taste, and touch. It can also contain some emotion or movement. Two tales: the Wife of Bath’s Tale and the Pardoner’s Tale are both written by Geoffrey Chaucer, who is a poet in medieval society.
After reading the Prologue and Tale for the Wife of Bath, the conclusion that has been drawn is that the chapter should be censored because of the graphic contents. The wife from Bath goes into detail about marriage and sex that relates to her life and the bible. Being as that, the wife from Bath is a religious woman who follows the contexts of the Bible with her daily and sexual life; as what she should do and what she should not do. She tells the people who she is traveling with about what it is like being married to five different men and how a woman should keep control over their husbands. By just listening to what the Wife from Bath has to say you can con to the understanding that she uses her husband to the best of her ability before
In the book of Wife of Bath’s Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer shows the role of a woman being weak creatures while men are economically powerful and educated. Women are seen as inheritor of eve and thus causes
In her take of the wife of bath leaves hints that she thinks that women should have the majority of the power in a relationship, leaving the man with little to no voice, “im his wife. For mine shall be the power all his life” within the relationship(WOBP 58-59). The Wife Of Bath's general purpose was to satirize the male rule within the wife of bath's tale. Throughout the story Chaucer mocks the power in a relationship by turning the tables and having the woman have all of the power and say in a relationship, instead of the
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).
In the fourteen century, men were always the superior, head of the household, the breadwinner, but women were always inferior, they would stay at home, do the house work, cook, and never would have a job. Well, times have changed. Women are reaching an equal status to men in political, social and economic matters It’s part of the idea called Feminism. In many ways the Wife of Bath displays many characteristic of women in the 21st century. Instead of being directed by men, she views herself as an independent person.
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.