Canterbury Tales - Wife of Bath
“The Prologue to the Canterbury Tales” had numerous unique characters, but the Wife of Bath struck me as the most interesting personality. Through the narrator’s use of direct and indirect characterization, significant details, and motivations for actions I was able to analyze the distinct traits of “the worthy woman from beside Bath city.” The narrator was very successful in portraying the wife.
The wealth of the wife was distinct. “Her hose of finest scarlet red” shows the fortune she possesses. The wife also had enough fortune to travel to the most important shrines in Italy, France, Spain, and Germany. The narrator’s described her appearance well. “Bold was her face, handsome, and red in hue” allows the reader to picture the wife as an attractive woman of her time. The middle-aged woman had impressive large hips and “gap-teeth” which express lust. Her corpulent figure was a very favorable aspect of the time; it indicated wealth and beauty.
“She’d had five husbands, all at the Church door” allows the reader to grasp much about the wife. Having five husbands shows that she is sociable and interested in love and marriage. Her experiences with marriage allow her to be very knowledgeable of love, which is “an art in which she knew the oldest dances.” “… All at the Church door” shows her devotion to tradition and her faith. Her dedication to the Catholic Church and the forbidding Church rules of the time, allow the reader to infer she did not divorce her husbands. Therefore, all of her husbands passed away, which allows us to conclude she may have married older men.
This wealthy world-traveler, on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, is not motivated by her faith as she travels on this mediocre trip.
Looking back through many historical time periods, people are able to observe the fact that women were generally discriminated against and oppressed in almost any society. However, these periods also came with women that defied the stereotype of their sex. They spoke out against this discrimination with a great amount of intelligence and strength with almost no fear of the harsh consequences that could be laid out by the men of their time. During the Medieval era, religion played a major role in the shaping of this pessimistic viewpoint about women. The common belief of the patriarchal-based society was that women were direct descendants of Eve from The Bible; therefore, they were responsible for the fall of mankind. All of Eve’s characteristics from the biblical story were believed to be the same traits of medieval women. Of course, this did not come without argument. Two medieval women worked to defy the female stereotype, the first being the fictional character called The Wife of Bath from Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The second woman, named Margery Kempe, was a real human being with the first English autobiography written about her called The Book of Margery Kempe. In these two texts, The Wife of Bath and Margery Kempe choose to act uniquely compared to other Christians in the medieval time period because of the way religion is interpreted by them. As a result, the women view themselves as having power and qualities that normal women of their society did not.
When comparing relationships between men and women depicted in these three literary works and comparing them to rules and guidelines in The Art of Courtly Love, it seems that in some ways they do match up, whereas in some ways they differ. For example, “No one can be bound by a double love” however, they had husbands, wives, lovers and concubines at the same time. On the other hand, “Nothing forbids one woman being loved by two men or one man by two women” seems to be right in the alley with the readings.
... her faith as a sensual experience, Kempe creates a new way--for women in particular--to reach not just enlightenment but empowerment through worshipping God. If Margery Kempe were alive today, she would be considered eccentric but because of her creative book, she would still make it on Oprah's Book Club list.
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.
*Blakelock, Jane. Online. Internet. 03/16/99. "Geoffrey Chaucer, Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath". Available http://www.media.wright.edu/studorgs/english20403/chaucer.html.
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.
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.
Another tendency of those practicing religion in the Middle Ages is to take Jesus' words from the Bible to a new literal level affecting medieval lifestyles across the board. Where monks and nuns had typically been the only observers of chastity, fasting, and poverty, laity began to observe these life practices as well. In Margery Kempe's life, this apodictic understanding of Jesus' biblically recorded or spoken words is evident among her commitment to make vows of chastity, her desire to embark on long pilgrimages, and her steps of unquestionable obedience as she advances on her spiritual journey. The absolute submission of Margery and the dedication to perfect contemplation in The Cloud of Unknowing which warns, “…y...
"The Wife of Bath's Prologue." The Canterbury Tales. New York: Viking, 2009. . Web. Jan. & Feb. 2012.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue.” The Canterbury Tales. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2000. 87-98.
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.
Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is an important part of his most famed work, The Canterbury Tales. One of the most respected highly analyzed of all of the tales, this particular one is important both for its character development and its prevailing themes. It seamlessly integrates ideas on society at that time with strong literary development. This work stands the test of time both because of its literary qualities and because of what it can teach us about the role of women in late Medieval society.
Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale" is a medieval legend that paints a portrait of strong women finding love and themselves in the direst of situations. It is presented to the modern day reader as an early tale of feminism showcasing the ways a female character gains power within a repressive, patriarchal society. Underneath the simplistic plot of female empowerment lies an underbelly of anti-feminism. Sometimes this is presented blatantly to the reader, such as the case of Janekin's reading aloud from "The Book of Wikked Wives" (The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale 691). However, there are many other instances of anti-feminism that may not scream so loudly to the reader. This is shown in the disappearance of the rape victim and the happy ending for the Knight. While the overall story is one of supposed feminism shown through women's empowerment, there are many aspects of "The Wife of Bath" that are anti-feminist in nature.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Wife of Bath Tale.” The Canterbury Tales. Trans. R.M. Lumiansky. NY: Bantam, 2006. 184-192. Print.
The widow Alisoun was seamstress by trade as well as a liberated older woman of her time in thought and action; for that reason, she traveled unescorted with a caravan of many diverse individuals toward the town of Canterbury. Hallissy submits, “The Wife of Bath’s array is flamboyant for a woman past forty, much less a widow. Her red stockings alone mark her off as improper. Her hat, as big as a shield, her five coverchiefs, her foot mantle about her hips, and her spurs on her feet indicate not only that she is ready for travel but also that she is ready for a new love. Extroverted in manner, assertive in speech, she defies authority by her appearance alone” (103). Each person on the pilgrimage shared a story with the others as a way of making the trip more enjoyable. The person whom had the most interesting tale would receive a complementary dinner at the end of their travel, co...