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Social Class In The Wife Of Bath's Tale

668 Words3 Pages

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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