The Complex Personality and Worldly Lifestyle in The Wife of Bath

529 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Chaucer showing respect for women in the bath

The Complex Personality and Worldly Lifestyle in The Wife of Bath

The Wife of Bath complex personality and worldly lifestyle is what makes this story a

classic. I would characterize her as one of many women who shared the same anti-

feminist ideas of her time. A detailed description of The Wife of Bath portrays her as a

brave and original woman.

This is a great story because Chaucer created a story that had characters with multiple characteristics, but the story was not based on the wealthy as most poems were in the era.

In the prologue, she mostly deals with her failed marriages and her knowledge in relationships between the sexes. In all, she has a strong desire to be above men and dominate them. Her actions in the prologue are legendary for anti feminists. She wears expensive clothes, ten pounds of cloth on her head, a large hat and a scarlet red dress. She learns that it is very important for a woman to satisfy her man, and she knows how to act to make him obedient and less powerful. As an example, the Wife of Bath fakes being murdered by her fifth husband to make him sorry for beating her and to get authority over him. Before the funeral of her fourth husband, she was previously married three times to old wealthy men who treated her well. The trend of old and wealthy switched to young and difficult with in her last two marriages. The last husband was violent, and his hands on approach to the relationship ended up being his downfall.

Some of The Wife of Baths shortcomings and faults were her inability to maintain a stable relationship and her desire to flirt with other men while her husbands were out of town. Other than her failures in relationships, she was a pioneer for women of her time. At a time when women did not have a lot of freedom, she seemed to live a free lifestyle. She spoke her mind and was quick to talk about her knowledge in pleasing men, sex and she spoke out against virginity. Another strong characteristic she possessed could was her ability to please herself and her how she refused to consider the opinion of others. This trait could also be looked at as a negative, because she did not care about her first 4 husbands either. The Wife of Bath also spoke her mind on the traditions that existed in her generation.

Show More
Related

  • Wife Of Bath Misogynist Quotes

    735 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Wife of Bath is portrayed as a strong-willed, alpha female. The Wife of Bath upholds the misogynistic ideas of Chaucer's time because she is a controlling, manipulative, know-it-all woman. Her personality and behavior both reflect the negative attributes that women were shamed for during that time. She is opinionated, dominate, and diabolical; all qualities that were not accepted easily in a woman. She defied the norm of that time.

    Read More

  • Greed In The Wife Of Bath's Tale

    226 Words  | 1 Pages

    The wife of bath shows us greed throughout the whole play. She wants to gain sovereignty over her husbands. She believes a happy relationship is one where the wife

    Read More

  • The Slipping Slope of Sovereignty: Hamlet by William Shakespeare

    1222 Words  | 3 Pages

    Additionally, Wife of Bath’s idea and desire is for all women to achieve sovereignty which doesn’t necessarily mean that it won’t favor men. As you can see, the Wife acts as a feminist here. Although, Alison wants to have the power in the relationship, she b...

    Read More

  • Laurel Thatcher Ulrich's Good Wives: Book Analysis

    2336 Words  | 5 Pages

    As stated by Ulrich, Bathsheba was remembered in English and American sermons as “a virtuous housewife, a godly woman whose industrious labors gave mythical significance to the ordinary tasks assigned to her sex.” In the Proverbs, she is described as one who is willing to serve her family (Ulrich 14). Moreover, just with Ulrich’s initial description of this biblical woman in which she compares women of the 1650s-1750s to, readers are able to get a general understanding that a woman’s role in economic life was vital to the success of her

    Read More

  • The Wife of Bath

    541 Words  | 2 Pages

    Many critics throughout the years have given the Wife of Bath a title of that of a feminist. She is a strong-willed and dominant woman who gets what she wants when she wants it, by manipulating her husbands into feeling bad for things that they didn’t do, or by saying things that put them to utter shame. No man has ever been able to give an exact answer when she asks to know how many husbands a woman may have in her life...

    Read More

  • Masculinity in The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale

    2166 Words  | 5 Pages

    Leicester, Jr., H. Marshall. "Of a fire in the dark: Public and Private Feminism in the Wife of Bath's Tale." Women's Studies 11.1-2 (1985): 157-78.

    Read More

  • The Wife of Bath’s Tale

    2912 Words  | 6 Pages

    “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a story about a widow who took a pilgrimage to the town of Canterbury with an array of dynamic characters whose diverse backgrounds allowed them to share their stories with one another to make the long journey more interesting. The widow named Alisoun in the “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” told the tale of her experiences with her five past husbands and a story about a knight and a witch. She truly believed that for a woman to have a happy life she would need to gain dominion over a man; however one could assume this was programmed into her by her influential mother and her own religious doctrines. Accordingly, Alisoun argued that the woman must control everything in order to have a happy marriage; however, her life experience and the story she shared should tell her otherwise.

    Read More

  • Free Canterbury Tales Essays: Rape and Power in The Wife of Bath

    799 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Wife of Bath was a plump, florid, jolly, bold, lusty, and voluptuous woman. She was the most valuable of women. The wife of bath cannot resist telling her companions about all of her sexual experiences. She has had five husbands. Her husbands fell into two categories. The first category of husbands was: rich, but also old and unable to fulfill her demands, sexually that is. The other husbands were sexually vigorous, but harder to control. The first three were rich, old, and jealous. She tamed them by accusing them of promiscuous behavior, that she herself practiced. Her fourth husband had a mistress, so she "gave him a real cause for jealousy" (Halliday 119). At the funeral of her first husband she fell in love with the legs of an Oxford clerk. Although he was half her age, he became her fifth husband. This marriage was unhappy because he beat her. To anger her fifth husband, the wife of Bath tore three pages from his book. After this he beat her again. She pretended to be dead and he felt so guilty that he threw his whole book in the fire. This gave her the upper hand for the rest of his life. She presently is looking for a sixth husband when her character is introduced (Halliday 119).

    Read More

  • Physical Appearance In The Canterbury Tales

    633 Words  | 2 Pages

    She “was about her ample hips” and very proud of her body. The clothes she wore, and the way she acted displayed her bold sexuality. Her pants were of fine scarlet red, and it states that she “had five husbands at the door.” The wife was a very social woman who could “laugh and gossip well.” Through her appearance and actions, it is proven that she was experienced in the act of love and sex. Attention is drawn to her, especially from her many lovers. “She was gap-toothed”, stated by Chaucer, which adds to the stereotype of what people thought of as a desirable woman. The more we learn about her, the more we realize how proud she was to be an icon of this time. The wife of bath used her lustfulness to not only show off her body, but to also represent the image of a wife. Her appearance is a defensive status to the stereotype of this

    Read More

  • The Role of Women in The Canterbery Tales

    2003 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Wife of Bath represents the "liberal" extreme in regards to female stereotypes of the Middle Ages. Unlike most women being anonymous during the Middle Ages, she has a mind of her own and voices herself. Furthermore, she thinks extremely highly of herself and enjoys showing off her Sunday clothes whenever the opportunity arises. She intimidates men and women alike due to the power she possesses. Because of her obnoxious attitude Chaucer makes her toothless, fat and large. Doubtlessly, she is very ugly, almost to the point of "not-presentable. This to me shows how Chaucer depicts what men don't want. The Prioress, on the other hand, serves as a foil to the Wife of Bath. Chaucer describes her as "tender-hearted" who cannot bear the sight of pain or physical suffering. She will cry at the thought of a dog dying. It could represent that she has a frail soul with low tolerance for pain and suffering. The latter description carries over into the modern stereotypes about women as skittish and afraid members of society who need to be cared for.

    Read More

  • Feminism in Chaucer’s Wife of Bath

    2103 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...f Bath, we see an individual who is willing to express that idea. Her courage to defy the traditional concepts as set by her peers does not intimidate her, and she boldly stands up for what she believes in, popular or not. Another strong feminist aspect to her is that she feels no need to be justified or have approval for her decisions and lifestyle. Just because she is a woman does not limit her choices in her life, and neither her gender nor her decisions make her inferior.

    Read More

  • Character Analysis Of The Wife Of Bath

    1369 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Wife of Bath 's prologue and tale has a very personal authenticity to it. Although Geoffrey Chaucer is the author, the wife of Bath takes agency to talk about herself and her experiences. It is almost as if the wife speaks for him. The expectations of married women, at the time The Canterberry Tales were written, were to be modest, true and obedient wives. The wife of Bath, however, admits to using her own experiences as the source of her knowledge in marriage, and not the views of society. It is the fact that she relies on her internal thoughts and experiences that allows one to see her (and Chaucer 's) personal insight on the desires of married women. Although some may say that the wife of bath is simply looking for dominion over her husbands, Chaucer characterizes the wife of bath as a bold woman, and also uses the first person point of

    Read More

  • Far From The Madding Crowd

    1887 Words  | 4 Pages

    Initially, Bathsheba’s character is high-spirited, feminine, naïve and self-centered. This is the first impression she gives Gabriel Oak, who eventually becomes a suitor, when she encounters him at the beginning of the story. The first time Gabriel lays eyes on Bathsheba, she is gazing admiringly at her own reflection in her pocket mirror. Gabriel realizes immediately that her greatest fault is “what it is always . . . vanity” (p. 56).

    Read More

  • What Women Most Desire

    1049 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Wife Of Bath Prologue Analysis

    954 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the Wife of Bath, the Wife’s prologue is very lengthy and has her information about her life. The prologue explains the Wife’s theories about experiences versus authority. The Wife of Bath have already had five husband, which means she had enough experience on marriage to make her an expert. She is not ashamed of her life or marriages and feels she should not be criticize for her behavior. The Wife reference several biblical quotes to justify her views and explains she does not feel God should punish those who marry more than once. As the prologue goes on, the Wife of Bath describes her marriages and tells what women most desire in their relationship. The thing that women most desire is to have complete control over their husbands.

    Read More

More about The Complex Personality and Worldly Lifestyle in The Wife of Bath

Open Document