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Gender relations between men and women
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The Canterbury Tales presents a multitude of learned lessons that caters to the imperfections of human nature. At first glance, the Wife of Bath 's tale appears to be apologetic towards a rapist knight, who manages to escape death through redemption and marries a beautiful woman by the end of the tale. However, it is notable that each tale in the Canterbury Tales reveals itself to be an extension of the particular character who is telling it. The Wife of Bath 's tale is a reflection of herself because she clearly relays information in the tale that mirrors her desires of having sovereignty over men, the societal standards of her time, along with her opinions on the legitimacy of interpersonal judgment.
My initial judgement of the knight
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She uses the knight to make an example of her husbands. The knight basically endures a lesson that involves his submission to the desires of women, rather than having a woman succumb to his. In her prologue, the Wife describes her manipulative method of passive aggression in order to get what she wants (236-378). If she were a Queen, such as the one in the tale, she more than likely would not have to go to such measures to get whatever she desires from her men. The Queen’s presence in the tale is significant for this very reason, because typical narratives will have the King as the number one decision maker in the …show more content…
The Wife of Bath frequently states in her prologue her position of religion. Typically, God is referred to as a “He” or “Heavenly Father” who grants mercy to his sinners if they are able to prove their worthiness. This particular theme of higher sovereignty reminds me of the Knight’s tale, where Theseus grants mercy to Palamon and Arcite simply for being knights of the enemy and they later refer to Greek deities to assist them with their situation. Not only does this inference create an entirely new perspective of this recurring theme of female dominance within the Wife of Bath’s tale, but it draws a parallel to the knight seeking the counsel of the old woman to assist him with his situation.
As with the other tales of the Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath’s tale presents itself as a lesson, almost as if it were a fable. It is not clear whether this is her direct intent; her intents appear to be selfish in regards that they only cater to her subjectivity on what could be an important lesson: obey women and good will come to
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.
This might seem ironic coming from a man in this period, but it is not so ironic when one looks at the Canterbury Tales and acknowledges it as a fine work of parody. Chaucer attacks other traditions vigorously, a good example of which is his discussion of corruption in the church . His critical look at the standards for women which are especially enforced by the church add humor to the tale of the Wife of Bath while also making a political statement. Chaucer prepares the reader for the tale with his brief description of the wife in the Prologue. She is a skilled cloth-maker and devoted Christian pilgrim trips as well as several other shrines in different countries.
..., and learning his lesson on the nature of women, he conquered things that most men would just say “Take me, I don’t want to go through this kind of stuff”. Luckily for me I found a gal that is very beautiful and I can trust, and hopefully we will move on from where we are as of now. Unfortunately, she has probably read The Wife of Bath’s Tale, and is going to want the same thing all women want, but strangely I’m okay with this because if a big bad Knight and other men have done it, hey, why not go for it. I’m just in the position that the Knight was never in, and she isn’t old, poor, or ugly, so I don’t have to choose her or a beautiful unfaithful chick. But the sad part about this is,like the Knight, I need to be punished because I did something very bad on Wednesday that I am going to be punished for on Thursday, but a MIP is not as bad as raping a girl. HAHA..
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
Some say women can get the worst out of a man, but in The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1485, proves it. The tales were originally written as a collection of twenty four tales, but has been narrowed down to three short tales for high school readers. The three tales consist of “The Miller”, “The Knight”, and “The Wife of Bath” along with their respective prologues. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer shows the weak but strong role of women throughout the “The Knight’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” to contrast different human characteristics and stereotypes on the spectrum of people.
In most cases today rape gets you sentenced to prison and sometimes death. Back in Chaucer’s day, in the text The Wife of Bath’s Tale, Chaucer wrote about a knight in the text The Wife of Bath’s Tale. This knight was arrested for his deed of raping a woman. His punishment is not as suffice as it would be in the modern world. The life of the knight was spared because of his beauty that the Queen had seen. Instead, the Queen insisted that the knight go on a trip; a trip that would last a year and a day. When the knight’s time was up, he would return to the Queen and explain what she had asked him before he left on his journey. The question that was asked was, “’yet you shall live if you can answer me: what is the thing that women most desire?’” says the queen ([Prentice Hall Literature] page 140 lines 50-51).As for the knight, what final choice does the old woman offer the knight? In what way does his response show that he has finally learned his lesson about the nature of women? And finally, Has the knight experienced sufficient punishment and redemption for his crime.
The tale is that of power and who has or should have the control in a relationship is it political, economical, governmental or sexual. The Wife of Bath clearly believes that she, and all women, should have the control in relationships and especially over husbands.
In The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, the stereotypes and roles in society are reexamined and made new through the characters in the book. Chaucer discusses different stereotypes and separates his characters from the social norm by giving them highly ironic and/or unusual characteristics. Specifically, in the stories of The Wife of Bath and The Miller’s Tale, Chaucer examines stereotypes of women and men and attempts to define their basic wants and needs.
The “Wife of Bath’s Prologue” shows that Alisoun was empowered by the ability use her sexuality. As she introduces her tale, Alisoun makes it clear that she sees marriage as a way to gain money and status, “Of fyve husbondes
"The Wife of Bath's Tale." The Canterbury Tales. New York: Viking, 2009. . Web. Jan. & Feb.
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.
... maiden, the knight is turned into the hero of the tale, with the reader hoping for a happy ending for him. "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale" can be seen as both a legend of women's empowerment as well as a reminder of the struggles women encountered daily.
One of the most interesting and widely interpreted characters in The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is the Wife of Bath. She has had five different husbands and openly admits to marrying the majority of them for their money. The wife appears to be more outspoken and independent than most women of medieval times, and has therefore been thought to symbolize the cause of feminism; some even refer to her as the first actual feminist character in literature. Readers and scholars probably argue in favor of this idea because in The Canterbury Tales, she uniquely gives her own insight and opinions on how relations between men and women should be carried out. Also, the meaning of her tale is that virtually all women want to be granted control over themselves and their relationship with their husbands, which seems to convince people that the Wife of Bath should be viewed as some sort of revolutionary feminist of her time. This idea, however, is incorrect. The truth is that the Wife of Bath, or Alisoun, merely confirms negative stereotypes of women; she is deceitful, promiscuous, and clandestine. She does very little that is actually empowering or revolutionary for women, but instead tries to empower herself by using her body to gain control over her various husbands. The Wife of Bath is insecure, cynical towards men in general, and ultimately, a confirmation of misogynistic stereotypes of women.
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.
“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.