Chaucer's Use Of Satire In The Wife Of Bath

Many critically acclaimed poets become famous for their work when it involves courageous criticism and going beyond the norm for the time period. Author of The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, uses his strong and daring opinion throughout his works to stereotype and critique the corruption of the medieval times. As time has passed and the tales have been studied deeper, questions have arisen wondering what Chaucer actually thought of the medieval lifestyle. His opinions were not blatantly stated, much rather written ironically and proven through satire. One majorly disputed point is the question of whether Chaucer and perhaps his characters, such as the Wife of Bath, could arguably be feminists. Feminist: a person who believes in the social,

She is characterized as a feminist during the time when it was viewed as a joke. She is a large woman with a gap between her front teeth and red, rosy cheeks to compliment her ostentatious scarlet tights. The Wife of Bath shows no shame in her promiscuous behavior and views it as necessary in order to be taken seriously as a proud woman, independent of her five previous husbands of which she appears to only have used for money and pleasure. “And knew the remedies for love’s mischances, an art in which she knew the oldest dances” (Chaucer 485-486). She would not be one to take the good with the bad, being a sovereign woman, she knew precisely how to handle herself in order to come out on top each time. The Wife of Bath not only wanted all women to experience sovereignty just as her tale explained, but she craved the jurisdiction everyday by being the sexual being that men are allowed to be, and through going beyond in her travels without a fear or a second thought as to a weapon. This character was the true definition of a medieval

He includes subtle character traits about her that, in a way, negate her powerful thoughts and actions. Chaucer uses the narrator’s lack of objectiveness, as he attempts to describe each character in a positive light; such as, “A worthy woman all her life, what’s more she’d had five husbands, all at the church door” (Chaucer 470). Now, naive Chaucer the narrator, is explaining her wits and experience, but if looked at ironically how it is meant to be, it shows that she uses her “independence” in a possibly strongly immoral way. In addition, Chaucer’s inclusion of “her hose were of the finest scarlet red” (Chaucer 464), and “She had gap-teeth set widely, truth to say” (Chaucer 478), may, ironically, be leading the reader to the conclusion of her indecency and sexual experience in life. Finally, the conclusion of her tale is seen, on one end, as proof of the necessity and power of equality. Nevertheless the queen’s decision of allowing the knight to live after such a horrendous crime proves Chaucer’s belief that women in power are incapable of making moral