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Critical appreciation of the character the wife of bath
Critical appreciation of the character the wife of bath
The wife of bath character analysis
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Dominance and Control in Chaucer's The Wife of Bath's Tale
The Wife of Bath, the main character in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale" recognizes dominance over her husband as the main purpose of her life and her story.
The Wife of Bath is a controlling and headstrong woman. She craves dominance over her husbands. She believes that, in order to be her husband, the man must be subservient and that she is the head of the household. Even thought she has been married five times, she has never let the man hold the upper hand. Out of the five, "three were good husbands, two of them were bad" (Chaucer 224). She was first married at the age of twelve and is now forty years old. To be married at such a young age, one can only imagine that the marriage was either arranged for money or for a title. The Wife of Bath recognizes that the key to survival for a fourteenth century woman is marriage, as shown in her having had five husbands and being married at the age of twelve. The Wife of Bath is also not what a wife should be. She torments her husbands by denying them sex until she gets what she wants, which is land and money. When she does sleep with them, it always means "nothing," but for the older husbands it means their lives (Chaucer 224). The Wife of Bath, in her mind, has the right to deny sex because it is she who hold the "'power of his body' not he" (Chaucer 223). She even proudly admits that she had married men for their money and driven them to their end by her desire for sex. She prays for Jesus to send men "who are meek and young and spirited in bed" (Chaucer 250). The Wife of Bath will stop at nothing to get what she wants because dominance is what she lives for.
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...at Chaucer does not believe that it is right for the Wife of Bath to use her sexuality as a tool to get what she wants. He recognizes there are other options of gaining power because he has the hag use her intelligence to gain control over the Knight. Feminine wiles are expected of women, just as men play their own games. "The Wife of Bath's Tale" is a humorous and ironic tale. The Knight supplies this irony and the Wife of Bath supplies the humor be gaining control of men half her age. The dominance and control that the Wife of Bath strives for is the theme of her life and of Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale."
Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Prologue of the Wife of Bath's Tale." Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1985.
Plucknett, Theodore F.T. A Concise History of the Common Law, 5th Ed. London: Butterworth, 1956.
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. According to the Wife of Bath, sovereignty, or power, over their husbands is what women desire most in their lives.
As complex as the onset of the Great War was, factors that influenced its beginnings included militarism, alliances, nationalism, imperialism and assassination. This is acronymically known as MANIA.
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.
Regularly characterized as monsters, women were ridiculed for being sexually unappeasable, lustful, and shrewish, and they were regarded with condescension by the church authorities. Similarly, people in the medieval era regarded multiple marriages as highly questionable, and it is for this reason that the Wife of Bath carefully examines the words of God as revealed in scripture (revealing her to be more than a simple-minded woman: a knowledge of religious texts proves she is definitely educated and well-read). She confesses that nowhere can she find a stricture against her having more than one marriage, and her five husbands are therefore her choice and hers only. “He seith to be wedded is no synne:/ Bet is to be wedded than to brynne”, she remarks humorously, drawing on the fact that by God’s permission, finding a partner through marriage is a pastime with little consequences, for it is better than engaging in sin and burning for it (50-53. 301). This begins her analysis of the bible and the often “sinful” breakdown of a sexual relationship between man and woman, and introduces her repetitive idea of the
The idea of supremacy and dignity are both present in The Wife of Bath’s Tale making it the central concept throughout the entirety of her story. It is assumed that her primary marriage was organized by her parents, even though The Wife of Bath does not mention them in her prologue, “experience, though no authority/ were in this world, is right enough for me/to speak of the woe that is in marriage; /for, my lords, since I was twelve years of age.” (Chaucer 285). In that time period, it is considered that the men, such as a father, husband or even a brother are supposed to protect the women in the family. Even though The Wife of Bath does not believe in being ruled by a man, she does however like to be married to one. One will notice that when a husband passed away or left, The Wife will move to her next husband. A marriage where the wife conquers over the husband is a perfect, blissful one according to The Wife of Bath. She discovers that it’s not too...
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed Mack, Maynard et al. W. W. Norton and Co. New York, NY. 1992.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue.” The Canterbury Tales. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2000. 87-98.
As it's well known, the world has been totally changed after the first world war. New countries have been created, and other countries have dismissed. What do you think was the reason of that war to be started? Why do people call this war " world war"? What happened when this war had been ended? In particularly, this war caused several losses and profits at the same time.
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.
Rigby, Stephen Henry. (2000). The Wife of Bath, Christine de Pizan, and the Medieval Case for Women. Chaucer Review, (pgs 133-165)
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.
...ionship dynamics exhibited in both the Wife’s prologue and in her knightly tale place male and female on equal footing; they are by turns equally despicable and commendable. As the Wife finds harmony with the one she loves and the hag provides a happy ending for both herself and for the knight, Chaucer seems to be presenting a balance between the masculine and the feminine: harmony is achieved through sacrifice on both parts. True love and a healthy relationship can never come about without this compromise, because both sexes desire control over the other. Something must be given up on each side. Chaucer implies that female triumph over a male’s control can still bring about a happy ending; as long as they think they’re on top, men will be content, and as long as they are given some semblance of power, women will happily devote themselves to the men they control.
The Wife of Bath is a complex character-she is different from the way she represents herself. Maybe not even what she herself thinks she is. On the surface, it seems as though she is a feminist, defending the rights and power of women over men. She also describes how she dominates her husband, playing on a fear that was common to men. From a point of view of a man during that time period, she seemed to illustrate all of the wrongs that men found in women. Such as a weak parody of what men, then saw as feminists. The Wife of Bath constantly emphasizes the negative implications of women throughout the ages. She describes women as greedy, controlling, and dishonest.
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.
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.