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Chaucers characterisation of the wife of bath
Chaucers characterisation of the wife of bath
Chaucers characterisation of the wife of bath
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Chaucer wrote 24 different tales on there way to Canterbury. In which he meets 29 other Pilgrims. A challenge was set that the best story teller would win a feast back at Tabard Inn. Two of the tales, that are told are the Pardoner's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Tale. Both of these stories have similarities and have differences.
William Thatcher is a peasant who forges papers with Chaucer a writer he meets in order to become a knight. Thatcher needs to "change his stars" like his father told him to do, when he left him with a knight. Thatcher participates in jousting matches to show his knightly prowess. He falls for a maiden, who seems to love him but needs prof of his love. She challenges Thatcher to lose every match of purpose and only then will she believe him.
Gloria Steinem once stated, “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” This quote is saying that women don’t need men, but the world has made the impression that they do. In the Wife of Bath’s Tale, women desire power over their husbands. In Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale, in lines 214 and 215, it states, “A woman wants the self-same sovereignty Over her husband as over her lover, And master him; he must not be above her.”
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 Geoffrey Chaucer’s epic poem “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” and Giovanni Boccaccio’s “Federigo’s Falcon” illustrate what love is to a woman. Both works emphasize an ongoing theme of sacrifice. Boccaccio’s story dwells on a man sacrificing things he loves to prove he is worthy of a woman’s love using dramatic irony, while Chaucer uses power as a sacrifice for safety. Both works of literature depict sacrifice as a way to get what you want, ultimately losing what you love. Boccaccio presents a lusty knight flaunting his power and looks, when he takes the power from a virgin maiden it only made his power excel. .
The Wife of Bath believed that women should take mastery over their men (Pg. 914). She had five husbands and thought she knew how to control men. She also believed that experience, not authority by gender, should be respected in society. She also believed that members of the church who could not marry or consummate, knew less of sex and therefore, not as experienced or educated on sexuality as she.
Overthrowing the Limits Set on Women The Wife of Bath is a strong and prominent character in Chaucer’s The General Prologue. Unlike other characters, she radiates this sense of power that comes from her being, along with the material items that make someone “powerful” during this era.
The Wife of Bath’s Tale is a story to men about what women most desire. The man in the tale has to find out the answer to that question, or his life is at risk. After searching for twelve months and a day, he finally finds the answer: sovereignty. Women want the right to have power over her husband and lover. They want their freedom.
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 fight for dominance is the constant battle for The Wife of Bath throughout Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. The Wife of Bath believes that her power to speak about marriage has come from experience, and she speaks much of her desire and ability to obtain “maistrye” or mastery within all of her marriages. The Wife of Bath demands to have complete control over herself, all possessions and her husband and is not willing to rest until she does. She is eager to fight daily until she gains full mastery.
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.
The women in Othello and Chaucer's Wife of Bath differ, but in the end both want their husbands to love them. In Othello there are only three women displayed in the story, but the statements that were said about these three women were the belief that all women in that society were all the same- evil, whores who were temptress to the men. The three women; Desdemona, the wife of Othello, Emilia, the wife of Iago, and Bianca, perceived as a prostitute who is a “customer” (l. 138. 4.1) of Cassio. Iago is one of the main characters who degrades and slanders all women including his wife Emilia.
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
Primarily, a woman by the name of Alisoun, joined a group of pilgrims traveling on religion sacrament to Canterbury, the location of a history murder within Canterbury. Following along with the game, the woman, also named The Wife of Bath, agreed to tell the tales that would be told during the venture. Her tale, set in the time of the mystical medieval times of fairies and elves, followed a knight faithfully searching for the "perfect woman", so to speak. The Knight, King Arthur was on a journey to break a curse put on him by the queen when he stumbles upon an old hag.
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.
