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’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.
Many women in The Canterbury Tales appear to be beautiful, pretty, and sweet. They do not reflect the true mindset of 14th century European women. Women were known for not being successful as their husbands, but not in the case of The Wife of Bath. She is able to become a successful merchant as we learn in her prologue. This already makes her a definable character who represents feminism ideals because she was able to do something that most women are not known to do which is sell and earn a living from it.
Stereotypes of Women in The Canterbury Tales Stereotypes of women have not changed throughout the years of history. Throughout the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer portrays women through negative stereotypes. Women are portrayed as selfish, lustful and immoral. In the Wife of Bath’s Prologue women are portrayed as selfish.
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
In his work, The General Prologue and The Wife of Bath’s Tale, The Wife of Bath is utilized to defy a patriarchal society and ownership, but still reinforces the idea of the male’s reduction to body/appearance in women. When looking at these attributes through a Feminist Theory Lens, there is a lot of material to be interpreted and distinguished. Chaucer’s work was believed to be written in 1386, a time where the world fell into a large patriarchal society. Men were believed to be in control and women were simply seen as subordinates.
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.
The wife of bath is harshly criticizing this Patriarchy, which is Chaucer’s way of criticizing it. In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, she tells a story of an old woman who is criticizing a young man and his mistreatment of her. On line 292, she says “But gentleness, as you will recognize, is not annexed in nature to possessions, men fail in living up to their professions; but fire never ceases to be fire.” Chaucer uses the Patriarchy to harshly criticize it and voice his opinion of
In Chaucer’s Wife of Bath Tale, it repeatedly references the Wife’s five marriages that took place at the church door. However, priests were not able to allow the marriages of bigamists, so the marriages could not have realistically taken place at the church door. In addition, it also portrays the social status of widows. The representation of them shows the “anti feminist and antividual ideologies. The widows are the two mother-in-law in the Man of Law’s Tale.
Many female critics have looked towards The Wife of Bath as a feminist role model (Reisman) She wanted authority over her five husbands, “She’d been respectable throughout her life, with five churched husbands bringing joy and strife, Not counting other company in her youth;” (Chaucer, l. 459-461) In Othello, the society centered around the men having all the control over women except in their beds, which was when the women could take control. Othello uses his power to over Desdemona to mock her,“Ay, you did wish that I would make her turn. Sir, she can turn, and turn, and get go on, And turn again.
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
“The Poynt of Remembraunce”: Chaucer’s Presentation of Women as Literary Characters Women in the Middle Ages generally had little opportunity to provide influence either in life or in literature. Little is known of their lives and thoughts because little was written from their viewpoint. Yet in an age and a society dominated by the “male gaze,” certain of Chaucer’s works take a different track, exploring the concept of women as characters. His presentation of Dido in The House of Fame and Anelida in Anelida and Arcite deviates from the traditional complaint genre, shifting the perspective to that of a female protagonist.
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.
The Wife of Bath states, “You have two choices; which one will you try? To have me old and ugly till I die, but still a loyal, and humble wife that never will displease you all her life, or would you rather I were young and pretty and chance your arm what happens in a city where friends will visit you because of me, yes, and in other places too, maybe. Which would you rather have? The choice is all your own” (395-403).
