ipl-logo

Masculinity In The Wife Of Bath

167 Words1 Pages
Throughout the entirety of her lengthy Prologue, the Wife of Bath boasts of her experience and mastery in controlling the male sex. Rather than being characterized by her weakness, the Wife of Bath is portrayed as a dominant and sexually powerful woman, thus contradicting the stereotypical portrayal of women as inferior beings. Throughout the Middle Ages, women were expected to submit to their husbands. The Wife of Bath, however, expects her husbands to submit to her, “An housbonde I wol have, I nyl nat lette, / Which shal be bothe my dettour and my thral” (155-156). The Wife characterizes her husbands as both her “debtor” and her “slave,” suggesting a severely unbalanced relationship in which the Wife has complete control. While unbalanced
Show More
Related

The Struggle For Power In Chaucer's The Wife Of Bath

249 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More

Wife Of Bath Manipulation Quotes

484 Words | 2 Pages

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.

Read More

Married Women In Sir Gawain And The Green Knight

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

Read More

Compare And Contrast The Wife Of Bath's Tale

399 Words | 2 Pages

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).

Read More

The Wife Of Bath: Social Injustices

206 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More

Women In Beowulf And The Wife Of Bath's Tale

1333 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More

Expectations Of Women In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

995 Words | 4 Pages

The Wife of Bath on the other hand, was a rambunctious woman who loved 'love', wealth and sex. She had married about 5 to 6 times and wore the pants in the relationship. The Wife of Bath questioned God, loved material things and was not afraid to insult or slurr. She was not the everyday, typical woman of the middle Ages. Though both these women showed to possess similarities to real medieval women such as Heloise and Christine de Pizan.

Read More

The Trials Of Marriage In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

1025 Words | 5 Pages

The hidden topic in the prolog of The Wife of Bath reveals itself to be a record of the trials of marriage. In the prologue and the tale itself, the Wife questions sovereignty, virginity, and marriage. It is evident the topics the Wife focuses on in her story is in all likelihood a portrayal of what she craves, dominance. Her story is set during the reign of King Arthur where a youthful knight has been sentenced to death for assault, but his life is saved on the condition that he discover the thing ladies crave, which is to be in control over their lovers. The Wife picking what the knight should do in order for his life to be spared represents that she has been miserable or unsatisfied in her past relational unions.

Read More

Women In Othello And Chaucer's Wife Of Bath

975 Words | 4 Pages

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.

Read More

The Wife Of Bath's Tale By Geoffrey Chaucer

668 Words | 3 Pages

In The Wife Of Bath’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer, the reader is exposed to the roles of women in medieval England. During these times, there were instances where some women were supposed to be submissive to men and others were that women actually had some forms of power. An analysis of the women's roles in the middle ages reveals one thing: women in the middle ages wanted equality, and they still want it, even in the modern times. In The Wife Of Bath’s Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer, women’s roles, are redefined in many ways.

Read More

Gender Role In Wife Of Bath's Tale By Geoffrey Chaucer

775 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More

Sex, Marriage, And Violence In The Wife Of Bath

498 Words | 2 Pages

In her prologue and tale the Wife of Bath discusses the topics of sex, marriage and violence, putting them together in a story in order to describe important social problems of the Middle Ages, which depict high oppression of women of the time. The first issue is the sexual negativity that is associated with females. Wife of Bath advocates for sexual freedom, unlike other women, she is proud of her sexuality and attractiveness. Seeing sex as a positive thing, the feminist argues that it is God given: “God Bad us to wexe and multiplyee” (28).

Read More

The Wife Of Bath Feminist Essay

1060 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

Character Analysis Of The Wife Of Bath

1052 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

Wife Of Bath Analysis

910 Words | 4 Pages

The Wife of Bath states, “You have two choices; which one will you try? To have me old and ugly till I die, but still a loyal, and humble wife that never will displease you all her life, or would you rather I were young and pretty and chance your arm what happens in a city where friends will visit you because of me, yes, and in other places too, maybe. Which would you rather have? The choice is all your own” (395-403).

Read More

More about Masculinity In The Wife Of Bath

Related Topics

Open Document