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Social Class In The Wife Of Bath's Tale

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During the Middle Ages in British history, the norms were centered on the monarchy and the church. The norms also affected all of the people depending on what social class they resided, and also if they were apart of the monarchy or the church. If they are apart of the church as a monk, or a friar, and if they are either married or not. The knights social class was that he was above almost everyone but the royalty and the church. A knight is supposed to be seen as a hero who is noble, and was appointed by the king or queen which is an extremely high honor. The norms of the church were very restricting of the freedoms that the church members would get to experience. In this story Chaucer starieses the knight, monk, and marriage. Chaucer uses …show more content…

Chaucer uses many different types of othering in both of his descriptions of the knights. The knight in “The General Prologue” is described as being an honorable characteristics of chivalry, such as being “generous and courteous,” however the knight in the “Wife Of Bath's Tale” shows no characteristics of being a gentleman (gp 46). In the “Wife Of Bath's Tale” the knight is constantly being othered by several different characters, he is othered by the othered by the old hag throughout the story because she takes away his basic human right to choose what he wishes to do. Also he becomes estranged from his peers from the task that the Queen had assigned him, then is denied his basic human rights and emotions by the old hag that forces the knight to marry …show more content…

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

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Austin Jolley English 110 8-10 AM Analytical Essay Wife of Bath Throughout the stories of Wife of Bath and in the prologue she touches on main points for how a female should be and act. As she is talking about her life, she was wed to five different men and was the example of what you don’t want to be. For example, she was going through and saying how she was only wed to the first 4 for money, power, and greed. But the fifth one was for the love of the man.

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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 misogyny in The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale describes the incompatible points of power versus knowledge, medieval misogyny versus feminine sexuality, and the staire that emerges from a character who clearly explains sexist charges while assuming her freedom and will. Chaucer decides to portray the Wife of Bath as a misogynistic image of negative characteristics in the interest of utilizing her as an entity of satire. This satire offers stereotypes in a ludicrous plan and makes an effort to alter human character as regards women. Chaucer illustrated the hundred-year-old custom of misogynist writing that was to a higher degree cared for and encouraged the growth of the medieval Church. From time to time, when the male characters are

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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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Throughout the Canterbury Tales, by Jeffrey Chaucer, many characters have been satirized to point out the issues of everyday society, and it is evident that the tales are able to connect with not only the past but the present as well. Furthermore, Chaucer utilizes the tales as a tool to fully characterize and detail the characters of the novel. In the Wife of Bath’s prologue, it is evident that Dame Allison is an individual who is portrayed as a negative character by Chaucer as she is revealed as someone who dominates men to obtain whatever she desires. Thus, the tale she recites is perfectly suited for her because it perfectly illustrates how women have power over their husbands and are able to achieve sovereignty over them. This relates

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The Patriarchy is the idea of men and women in the middle ages. In this time, women were not seen as equal to men, because men sat above women in the Patriarchy. It was socially acceptable, and even encouraged, for men to beat their wives with sticks if they ever “misbehaved”. Chaucer’s harsh criticism of this is evident in “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”. In this writing, the wife of bath is telling of her many husbands and how badly she has been treated by them.

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The Wife of Bath’s Tale is from the Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer, it is a tale about the battle of the sexes. The narrator is a woman who has “been an expert as wife” who has a tale “of the tribulation in the married life” (Chaucer 155). The Wife of Bath conveys the theme of power in which humans desire to hold over one another. This theme is shown throughout the tale as characters exhibit control over others, recurring images of power over the knight and ideas illustrated by the narrator.

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The Canterbury Tales No matter what there will be fraud and corruption in your life. It is just a part of life. In this fantastical essay there will be a bundle of information about the Wife of Bath, and the Knight in The Canterbury Tales. In Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer paid more attention to the Wife of Bath, and the Knight then he did with the other characters in the story.

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The king easily passed over the power to decide what to do with the knight, which was uncommon during Chaucer’s time. Women usually did not have a say, especially in an important decision such as the life or death issue of the knight. Leicester explained in paragraph seven that the knight needs to learn about women, which the queen forced him to do, making him

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Chaucer paints a very negative perspective of the Wife of Bath. Some biographers take this depiction to represent Chaucer’s personal beliefs toward women in general. It could be argued that Chaucer was simply creating a rich character for his poetry. The details of the Wife of Bath on the way to Canterbury describes a woman that was verbal about her many husbands. “I will tell truth of husbands that I’ve had, For three of them were good and two were bad, The three were good men and were rich and old;” (Wheeler et.

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He is rewarded with having a young, beautiful, faithful wife. The old woman gets what she wants because she manipulates the knight into letting her choose how she wants to live. The Wife probably rebels against the traditional role of women because she is an independent business woman and capable of taking care of herself, which goes against the traditional view. Chaucer believes the majority of women during the Middle Ages were submissive, but some of them were rebellious and seeking sovereignty over their lives. He shows this idea through the “Knight’s Tale” and the “Wife of Bath’s Tale.”

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For example, when the ugly old woman and the Knight make it back to court so that the knight can fulfill the task given to him by his Queen, his answer and the reaction of the women present for his answer. In response to the Knights answer that women desire power over their husbands and power in general, Chaucer wrote “In al the court ne was ther wyf, ne mayde,... But seyden he was worthy han his lyf (1043-1045).” The women of the court and the Queen’s willingness to agree with what the Knight said, shows how the women of this tale think and further signifies that the wife was correct in her views and that it's common knowledge among the

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Chaucer expresses his opinionated views of the manners and behaviors of women during these times. In the Wife of Bath's Tale, Chaucer portrays a lavish and lusty woman, whereas the Prioress is well mannered with an elegant attitude. Though it may seem as if these two women were complete opposites, they actually shared similar qualities. Women at this time did not possess the self-confidence to live, travel, and think independently. In the prologue, Chaucer says that the Wife of Bath, “had thrice been to Jerusalem /… to Rome and also to Boulogne / St James of Compostella and Cologne (473-476)” which shows the reader that she is not the average obedient female of Medieval society.

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The Wife of Bath has been the topic of the constant debate as of whether to be categorized as a revolutionary feminist figure or the affirmation of all misogynist views towards women in the times of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. She can be interpreted as a nominalist, her experience gained through her five marriages playing into her approach to love and marriage; parallels are struck concerning her emotional and physical control over her first three husbands and the lack thereof she had in the last two. Scholars have argued in favour of her being one of the first feminist characters in literature as she breaks the mould of a typical feminine figure, written to be more of a character than a prop and her unique insight and opinions lead her

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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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