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The Wife Of Bath Patriarchy Essay

1996 Words8 Pages

The Surpassing of the Patriarchal Norm In The Wife of Bath Views on the presence of feminism in “The Wife of Bath,” range from those who believe that Alisoun, The Wife, surpasses patriarchy and those who believe that Alisoun falls short. This story, “The Wife of Bath,” is a subsection of a larger story entitled The Canterbury Tales, in which the Wife of Bath tells her own history as well as a tale that she has created. The Wife of Bath is one of the twenty pilgrims who travel on a spiritual journey. Each pilgrim tells a tale and the pilgrims form a competition to see who has the best tale. She begins prior to her tale with a full introduction of herself, including the number of husbands that she has had. Her introduction goes on with telling …show more content…

“A woman wants the self-same sovereignty / Over her husband as over her love”(Chaucer 286). Subsequently, for Alisoun to tell a feminist story, it supports her strong beliefs in feminism. In addition, her expansive education and her superiority to men when she talks about her history leads to the evident conclusion that she surpasses the patriarchal society. Since her story and her actions are all expressions of her belief in equality, this is one example of how she transcends patriarchy. The first step in surpassing the patriarchy is believing in feminism, and since The Wife of Bath has a feministic personality; she is able to transcend the patriarchy. “He must not be above her” (Chaucer 286) is the line that the knight says in his defense. This defense grants him the pardon and shows, the tale that Alisoun tells has her opinion that a female wants to have equal rights to the male; therefore this expresses that she has a feministic belief. Also, in her tale, “he (the king) gave the queen the case/ And

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