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Gender Politics: The Wife Of Bath's Tale

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The Wife of Bath’s Tale in Relation to Gender Politics
The Wife of bath might be one of the most controversial fictional characters ever to be analyzed. Some people are under the impression that the wife of bath is a feminist because of how she doesn’t just do what a man tells her to do. Other people say she is an anti-feminist because of the way she acts and how it doesn 't set a good example on women and because the character was written by a man. This sort of discussion is called gender politics. Gender politics is defined as the debate about the roles and relations of men and women. The wife of bath is from a tale in the canterbury tales called the wife of bath 's tale. The Wife of Bath is a feminist because of the actions that she makes and the way she makes choices. So is the Wife of Bath a feminist? The tale starts off in when king arthur ruled the land. These weren’t amazing times for women because in medieval times women didn 't have rights. They weren’t able to vote, they couldn’t choose to marry or have children, they couldn’t own land unless it was given to them and even then if they marry then it all goes to the husband, and they weren’t usually allowed to be educated. Not only did they not have rights but rape was a big issue then. In these times there was a knight and one day he saw a maiden and he raped her. Word of this made it to the court and they were displeased. The king was going to chop off his head for his digressions. TWB quotes in her tale “ He
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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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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.

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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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There are one in few ladies once again in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (now referred to as SGGK) so there is once more little representation on the views of women and those views have not changed much since the earlier days of British literature. With SGGK the most prevalent example in this comes in the form of Bertilak’s wife, whose sexuality plays a very important role. Right of the bat she is quickly presented as a temptation and test to Sir Gawain, her sexuality and lust represents a test of faith that Sir Gawain must pass. Bertilak’s wife is nothing quite like the women in which the time she was written in.

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In his 1994 paper, Claiming the Pardoner: Toward a Gay Reading of Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale, Steven F. Kruger begins with an intriguing reference to Allen Barnett's 1990 short-story Philostorgy, Now Obscure. Barnett, according to Kruger, understands the Pardoner to be "a voice that might angrily challenge or campily subvert the legacies of homophobia" (Barnett 118). Kruger, however, is skeptical of such an interpretation of the Pardoner, because of the homophobic way in which Chaucer wrote him. Thus, Kruger is concerned that if the Pardoner is "claimed", the modern gay community might involve themselves in this bigotry.

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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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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).

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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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In The Canterbury Tales, a set of short stories by Geoffrey Chaucer, 29 pilgrims tell stories about their life in order to keep each other entertained on their pilgrimage to Canterbury. One of the pilgrims, Alice, also known as Wife of Bath, particularly stands out. She tells her story of her five husbands, and explains to the readers her ideas of women. These ideas include that women are morally weaker than men, something that she “fixes” by gaining power in unusual ways, such as lying to them or withholding sex. She also gains control over them by always telling them they are in the wrong, something that she considers power because they then believe her and consider her better than them.

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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.

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Many female critics have looked towards The Wife of Bath as a feminist role model (Reisman) She wanted authority over her five husbands, “She’d been respectable throughout her life, with five churched husbands bringing joy and strife, Not counting other company in her youth;” (Chaucer, l. 459-461) In Othello, the society centered around the men having all the control over women except in their beds, which was when the women could take control. Othello uses his power to over Desdemona to mock her,“Ay, you did wish that I would make her turn. Sir, she can turn, and turn, and get go on, And turn again.

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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

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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.

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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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A story that reflects a timeless issue of equality, morals, and lesson on what women really desire. The Wife of Bath by Geoffrey Chaucer is a story in The Canterbury Tales that expresses multiple moral lessons and an exciting dialogue that provides an entertaining story. The two stories that will be examined today are the “Pardoners Tale” and “The Wife of Bath”, after much evaluation I believe that “The Wife of Bath” is the better story. This is the better story because it’s more entertaining and also has more morals with better quality.

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