Alvarez unfolds how Trujillo impacted her mother in a chronological order in a revealing way. Alvarez explains at first that her mother adores Trujillo. It was the way of life for the Dominican Republic people. She was raised to be this way in a life of her eyes revolving around this dictator who showed to be really good, but was not good at all. An example of a false representation of the dictator is Stalin or Hitler.
The Wife of Bath’s Tale is a King Arthur romance based on the theme of the frog prince, but, with an unlikely twist. A knight commits a wrongful deed and when he is caught, the king turns his punishment over to the queen. The queen decides that given the crime, the knight will have the challenge of answering the question “what is it that women desire?”. He has exactly one year and a day to find the answer to this question, which proves to be harder than he thought. Alas, when the day arrives, he is tested by marrying an old woman who gave him the answer to the queens question.
Questions: 2.) In this section, the Wife of Bath comments on the different answers given to the Knight, and her comments give insight to her opinions and views of women. For example, the text states, “Others assert we women find it sweet when we are thought dependable, discreet and secret, firm of purpose and controlled, never betraying things that we are told. But that’s not worth the handle of a rake; women conceal a thing? For Heaven’s sake!”
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.
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.
In English literature history Geoffrey Chaucer writes about pilgrims who embark on a journey to Canterbury. While reading the prologue of The Canterbury Tales he describes good and bad characters. Kim Kardashian West resembles the Wife of Bath, one of the bad characters. The Wife of Bath’s colorful prologue gives the reader a dose of what women were not expected to portray in the medieval times. Living by making cloth, having soft and new shoes, possessing the finest woven kerchief’s, and owning a hat as broad as a buckler are a few items she is remembered by.
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).
The Wife of Bath is a very outgoing young woman who is seated next to the Nun and the Cook in order to cause a ruckus during dinner. Considering the Wife of Bath is very dramatic and high-maintenance, she is appalled to find out that she is sitting next to the bold Cook who does not mind to cover his large sore on his leg. He was also part of the hardworking middle class which the Wife of Bath found completely insulting to be sitting next to her since she was so selfish and only cared about her appearance. To her right was the Nun who was almost as materialistic as herself. They would get along just fine and could have a easy conversion, however, they would strive to be better than the other.
In today’s world, the controversial topic of rape has become a generalized issue in modern day society. Shockingly, more and more people are being sexually assaulted and raped which has resulted in everyone thinking it’s a common issue that is no surprise when it happens. Rape has been a wound to society since the beginning of time. Even in the Medieval period, rape was an issue that had to be dealt with. An author named Geoffrey Chaucer, the writer of The Canterbury Tales, sheds light on this issue even when his story was written in the late 1300’s.
Gender role refers to those behaviors and attitudes that are considered to belong to one sex. Gender role is based on femininity and masculinity that differentiate women and men by giving men some roles and women which results to gender inequality. There some work in society that is regarded to belong to women such as cooking, taking care of children and other less important roles while men are given roles that makes them superior than women. Most of the gender roles associated with women makes them inferior and creates a room to be oppressed. Gender roles are constructed by society and attributed to women or men.
The Wife of Bath’s Tale begins with a Knight who must answer one question in order for his life to be spared and for him to gain some sense of honor back. This Knight must answer the question of what women truly want. In his journey to find the answer to said question, he comes across an ugly old woman who says she can answer his question of what women truly desire. The ugly old woman asks for one thing in return "Plight me thy trouthe heere in myn hand," she says to the knight (Chaucer 1009). She essentially is asking him to swear fealty to her.
Chaucer also uses satire in a more comical way to illustrate how women can’t keep a secret. The Wife of Bath reveals this trait when she says “by heaven, we women can’t conceal a thing” (Chaucer 341), mocking the suggestion that women have an inability to keep a secret. Chaucer also makes fun of the knight’s condition using the irony of women being incapable of keeping a secret as the only thing that can save him. Mocking women and their incapability to not share private information only further reveals Chaucer’s satire.
The Wife of Bath is displayed as strong, independent, and unconcerned with any social standards she may or may not be held to. When explaining the Wife of Bath Chaucer details,“Bold was her face, and handsome; florid too. She had been respectable all her life, And five times married, that’s to say in church, Not counting other loves she’d had in youth”(Chaucer 14). Multiple clothing items add onto her attitude of self-determination and power, as she is described as wearing a hat that resembled a shield, and sharp spurs on her feet (Chaucer 15). With the Wife of Bath being described as a mistress with multiple husbands, one would expect her to be characterized as a scheming harlot that men should be wary of (as was common in medieval misogynist tales).
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.
In the story, “The Wife of Bath,” Chaucer handles satire to critique class and nobility. Alike today, class and nobility still haunt us. Being that, we still see it in high school, it obviously hasn 't gone away. Chaucer brings forth the issue by sending the Knight on a journey of a lifetime. When he arrives back, he still doesn 't have the answer that he was sent to find.
