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Theme and symbols in the wife of Bath's tale
Theme and symbols in the wife of Bath's tale
The wife of bath's tale
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Thread 1 In the Wife of Bath’s Tale Chaucer uses the theme of power. An example of this is the power shift of when the Knight forcefully tool the young woman’s virginity to him letting his wife have power over him. This is important because it goes along with the question he was tasked with finding an answer to, that all women want is to hold “sovereignty over their husbands or the ones they love”(1038-1039). Thread 2 Chaucer also uses similes to compare the knight to an owl. A textual example of this is “Then all that day he hid just like an owl” (1081). He is saying that that the knight hid from his wife in the same way owl’s hide from the sun. Thread 3 In the Wife of Bath’s Tale, Chaucer uses allusions to convey a message. An example
The use of euphemism and crudeness in “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” is simultaneously unnerving and amusing, and begs the question of how a “wicked” woman like The Wife could ever actually progress in medieval society. Chaucer incorporates subtle allusions to female sexual organs and it is this bluntness (that would raise eyebrows even today) which establishes the Wife as such a powerfully outspoken character. Because courtship in Chaucer’s time was considered worthy of complete submission, the fact that the Wife places such emphasis on domination and even psychological power hints at her being an object of irony (and not a feminist figure “before her time”). It is for this reason that Chaucer’s delicate use of “queynte”- a term from which
“The life so short, the craft so long to learn” (Famous Quotes). The Canterbury Tales is enriched with humanistic merit that allows the reader to sharpen his or her own craft of life. Specifically, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” and “The Clerk’s Tale” are embodied with multiple struggles of life that pertain to life in the present. Despite seven centuries of society constantly evolving, the two stories’ plots can still be further analyzed through similar themes about relationships that pertain to modern society and how rhetorical strategy allows the audience to relate to the narrative characters.
The Wife of Bath, with the energy of her vernacular and the voraciousness of her sexual appetite, is one of the most vividly developed characters of 'The Canterbury Tales'. At 856 lines her prologue, or 'preambulacioun' as the Summoner calls it, is the longest of any of the pilgrims, and matches the General Prologue but for a few lines. Evidently Chaucer is infatuated with Alisoun, as he plays satirically with both gender and class issues through the Wife's robust rhetoric. Scholars and students alike have continued this obsession with her, and as a consequence Chaucer's larger than life widow has been subject to centuries of scrutiny. Indeed, she is in the vast minority amongst the Canterbury bound pilgrims; apart from the in-vogue Prioress she is the only female - though she appears in no way daunted by the apparent inequality in numbers. It seems almost a crime to examine masculinity in her prologue and tale, but as I hope to show, there is much to learn both about the Wife and about Chaucer from this male presence.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale.” From The Riverside Chaucer, Third Edition. Ed. Larry D. Benson. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.
The Wife of Bath’s Tales takes place during King Arthur’s time in a land that used to be filled with fairies and elves. The story is about a knight, who was one of King Arthur’s knights. On the way home from hawking, the knight spots a maiden walking alone and he decides to forcefully rape her. This was a really big crime during the time.
Chaucer exemplifies this in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale.” Living in a male-dominant society, the wife ...
In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, a reader is introduced to a rather bizarre and heterogeneous group of people leaving for a pilgrimage. The Wife of Bath is the most interesting and lively character of the group. Her "Prologue" and "Tale" provide readers with a moral lesson as well as comic relief. The Wife's "Prologue" serves as an overture to her "Tale", in which she states a very important point regarding the nature of women and their most sacred desires. According to this character, women desire sovereignty, or power, over their men most in the world. This wish seems to be most appropriate for women of the time period in which Chaucer lived. However, women today no longer wish to dominate their men - sovereignty of women over men is not relevant in the twenty-first century. The reason is that women are no longer deprived of power and freedom.
Woman in “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” compared to the women in Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight shows a progress or a power shift between men and women. When the knight sees the old lady and asks her for her help, she’s the only one who has that power to help save him. Now in terms of power, the old lady and the Wife differ in how they show their power. For example, The Wife in the prologue, she talks about her having five husbands and is looking for the sixth one and how her husband who “shal be bothe my dettour and my thral / And have his tribulacion withal / Upon his flesh whil that I am his wif.” (shall be both my debtor and my slave / And bear his tribulation to the grave / Upon his flesh, as long as I’m his wife) (The Wife of Bath’s Prologue 161-163) and even how she “have the
Olson, Glending. "The Marital Dilemma In The Wife Of Bath's Tale: An Unnoticed Analogue And Its Chaucerian Court Context."English Language Notes 33.(1995): 1-7. Humanities Source. Web. 15 Dec. 2013.
There is a saying from Nityananda Das, “Any kind of hatred towards the opposite sex is a symptom of an unhealthy relationship with God.” One of the literatures that exemplifies the aforestated quotation is the poem “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” by Geoffrey Chaucer. The male writer portrays both the Knight’s and the old lady’s thoughts through the perspective of a female narrator: the Wife of Bath. Similarly, “My Father’s Sadness” by Shirley Geok-lin Lim takes the readers through the steps of a father's shoes to convey the unlimited understanding of gender with the use of an array of literary device.
Feminism, to me is that belief that everyone is treated equally, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity, religion, ability, and sexual orientation. The Wife of Bath is a feminist icon to an extent. There are some inaccurate interpretation of feminism in her character. Women of the middle ages were taught to be submissive, to follow their husband's orders, and to know their place. These are all attribute that feminist go against, and the Wife of Bath is not exception.
The Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale. Geoffery Chaucer. The Middle Ages, Volume 1A. Eds. Christopher Baswell and Anne Howland Schotter. The Longman Anthology of British Literature. Fourth ed. Gen.eds David Damrosch, and Kevin J. H. Dettmar. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2010. 375-408. Print.
However, Chaucer uses the Wife of Bath to invite us to think about the inequalities shaped in the institution of marriage that produce bad behavior. The Wife of Bath becomes a social advocate for women through her experiences.
In The Canterbury Tales Wife of Bath’s Tale, the author incorporates major events in the text that relate to power in many different ways. In addition, in the text the author illustrates the sovereignty that women have over man in various ways. Furthermore, there is power in knowledge because with knowledge there is freedom. Also, in the text a character loses power over the external events that occurring in their lives. In The Wife of Bath’s Tale, the author illustrates a woman’s power through authority, marriage, and punishment.
Women have the ability to get what they want, when they want it. Chaucer portrays the Wife of bath as the dominant person in her marriages. She looks at men as her trinkets to be used and played with. She moves from one man to another, always looking for more. The Wife of Bath is a control freak, wanting to have sex when she desires it and with whom she desires.