ipl-logo

Wife Of Bath Feminist Essay

570 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Wife of bath a feminist

Many scholars today debate that the Wife of Bath is a feminist standing against oppressive behavior from males and the technical definition of femininity and masculinity. Wife of Bath is characterized being radical especially when it comes to relationships with men. She is characterized as knowing much about love, being depicted as gap-toothed, symbolizing being “sexually accomplished”; she admits that she is a rambunctious woman who enjoys sex and is not ashamed of it, which is a violation of the medieval view that saw sex as justified only for procreation.
In Chaucer's time, the antifeminism was strong in the church. Women were frequently characterized as monsters; they were sexually unsatisfying, lecherous, short-tempered, and they were patronized by church authorities. Women were not allowed to participate in church doctrine in any way; likewise, a second marriage was considered suspect. Furthermore, in Chaucer's time, perpetual virginity received considerable praise. Some of the saints were canonized because they preferred death to the loss of their virginity, …show more content…

“God has given women by nature deceit, weeping, and spinning, as long as they live” (Chaucer, 201). The Wife of Bath believes that experience is the greatest authority, and since she has been married five times, she certainly considers herself an authority on the. It is ironic to see the even though is not religious but, she uses the Bible as justification to pardon her behavior. She is not ashamed of her having six different husbands and being sexually active for pleasure, another thing that was frowned upon: fornication. To most people of this time, sex was strictly for reproduction. Her reasoning for not needing to be ashamed is that God made reproductive organs for both “necessary business and pleasure” (Chaucer, 189). As justification for marrying multiple times, she believes that in God’s eyes it is approved of and

Show More
Related
689 Words | 3 Pages

This quote suggests that the Wife of Bath believes all women are incapable of keeping a secret, which is an untrue and harmful stereotype. Her main opinion on women seems to be that while they wish to appear wise, pure, and good on the outside, it does not mean they are perfect internally and many

Read More
249 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More
365 Words | 2 Pages

Women in the middle ages tend to be push aside as the Chaucer displayed in “The Knight’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”. In the medieval system, people believed that women are to be educated by their husbands, that women are vicious, and therefore they believe men were always right. Women’s position in society was determined by the unfavorable attitudes of leaders. Women also was to seem to be following the Mother of Christ example to preserve their virginity. When the Wife of Bath was created there was no awareness of feminine desire for equality.

Read More
838 Words | 4 Pages

Although having many great qualities, what seems to be a wonderful figure, and a wonderful travel life, she has been married many times. Five times have been in the church, and her first marriage was at the age of fourteen. The reason why she has been able to have such an “extravagant” lifestyle as a middle class woman is she kept marrying older men, and none seem to survive the marriage. She was known to be a lusty woman. Page 249, in The Tale paragraph it states, “the tale expresses her views about relations of the sexes, her wit and humor, and her

Read More
1243 Words | 5 Pages

In the Wife of Bath’s, she broke all the stereotypes Medieval society thought a wife is. She tells the people that being married intercourse is part of marriage and God has made privates parts to make generations, not to waste in doing nothing. Being categorized or stereotyped in Medieval society was hard for married women in the Medieval era because often they were portrayed as disloyal, uncontrolled sexual beasts because of the lack of marriage

Read More
1381 Words | 6 Pages

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

Read More
206 Words | 1 Pages

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.

Read More
260 Words | 2 Pages

One inference I can make about the Wife of Bath is that most characters in this tale would rather be lusted for than actually loved. We see this when the knight would rather have an unfaithful beautiful wife over a faithful not so pretty wife. This shows me that the knight would rather lust after the beautiful girl while he is in competition for her attention, which is not a healthy relationship. When the knight goes on his journey to find what women most desire for, he finds that the answer is that women want power over men. I believe that women wanted this so badly because their men were not faithful to them and they were always chasing after someone new.

Read More
1028 Words | 5 Pages

“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” that we have been studying consists of several claims and arguments. Some of them are marriage is not a sin, women and men are equal, a wife should have the control over her husband, the husband should obey and follow his wife’s orders, and those men who did not follow the rule have to be punished by god. However, not all of the arguments are present in both the prologue and the tale. The main argument, which is present in both the prologue and the tale, is that a wife should be incharge in relationship and take control over her husband. At the same time, the husband should love and obey his wife by following her orders.

Read More
170 Words | 1 Pages

Chaucer's “The Wife of Bath” portrays negative stereotypes of women in the Middle Ages. Many people believe that the Wife was one of the first feminist characters in literature, unfortunately this statement is discouraged due to the fact that the Wife conforms to many of these misogynistic stereotypes. The Wife denies men of sexual favors when she discovers they are not paying her the amount of money she desires. She declares herself as a dominating woman, who is ready to trade her sex for money but also forcefully argues against the misogynistic views of women. Which is hypocritical and shows that the Wife is adapting to the stereotypes.

Read More
775 Words | 4 Pages

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

Read More
1047 Words | 5 Pages

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).

Read More
609 Words | 3 Pages

In Chaucer’s descriptive prologues and tales, he discusses many people in pilgrim times. The prologues of the Wife of Bath’s gives a very distinct description of the wife to make her out to be an appealing individual. The prologues gives a lot of details about the Wife of Bath. This is a women whose distinct characteristics made her the genuine and pure person she was. She was portrayed as a sex symbol, a woman of confidence, but a devout Christian.

Read More
1060 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout her introduction of the tale, and the story itself, we see the Wife of Bath as an experienced, intellectual woman, who despite living in a world of patriarchal power, provides for herself financially, emotionally, and physically. As a feminist icon, she confronts serious social issues that illustrate the subjugation women faced. During her prologue and her tale, it is very clear that the Wife of Bath is proud and not ashamed of her sexuality. She views sex as a good ideal, and argues it, using references from the Bible, that God’s intentions

Read More
1052 Words | 5 Pages

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.

Read More

More about Wife Of Bath Feminist Essay

Related Topics

Open Document