Common Sense, Ethics, and Dogma in The Wife of Bath
In his Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer assembles a band of pilgrims who, at the behest of their host, engage in a story-telling contest along their route. The stories told along the way serve a number of purposes, among them to entertain, to instruct, and to enlighten. In addition to the intrinsic value of the tales taken individually, the tales in their telling reveal much about the tellers. The pitting of tales one against another provides a third level of complexity, revealing the interpersonal dynamics of the societal microcosm comprising the diverse group of pilgrims.
Within the larger context, the tales can be divided into groups. These ‘fragments’ are each cohesive, not in the least because of their treatment of a single overarching question or issue, as is examined in detail by structuralist critic Jerome Mandel, in Building the Fragments of the Canterbury Tales. Using Mandel’s premise as a beginning, one can further conjecture a structural similarity between the fragments; for the immediate purposes, a similarity between Fragments I (beginning with the Knight’s Tale) and III (beginning with the Wife’s Tale) is worth noting, in which an opening tale poses a serious question and partially addresses it, and a pair of lighter tales follows, each playing off the other to further examine the question. As the fragments progress, moreover, the questions as they arise encompass the previous question. Thus, the Wife of Bath’s Tale serves an important didactic purpose in encompassing the Knight’s, and heightening the level of the dialogue as Alice, the Wife of Bath, exams the validity of the question the knight poses in its entirety.
In the Knight’s Tale, the questio...
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...haps, in the Wife of Bath’s view, should Emily have been given the choice of the two, a head injury might have been avoided. Meanwhile, that second sin mentioned in her prayer, that of miserliness, Alice saves for another day, and another tale—one at which we may later get a glimpse.
Works Cited
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.
Coghill, Nevill, trans. The Canterbury Tales. Middlesex, England: Penguin, 1951
Eisner, Sigmund. A Tale of Wonder: a Source Study of the Wife of Bath’s Tale. New York: B. Franklin, 1969.
Mandell, Jerome. Geoffrey Chaucer : building the fragments of the Canterbury tales. N.J. : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1992.
Newton, Lisa, ed. Ethics In America: Study Guide. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1988.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Wife of Bath's Tale." Canterbury Tales. McDougal Littell Literature British Literature, 2012. Print. 180-192.
Shead, Jackie. "'The wife of bath's tale' as self-revelation: Jackie Shead discusses how far the Wife's Tale perpetuates the picture we have gained of her from her Prologue." The English Review Feb. 2010: 35+. General OneFile. Web. 24 Feb. 2011.
It is first important to understand the background of both The Wife of Bath and Margery Kempe’s stories. The Wife of Bath was a character created by Geoffrey Chaucer who is radically different from the nonfictional character of Margery Kempe. The Wife of Bat...
The Wife of Bath Take was probably one of the most interesting stories out of The Canterbury Tales. It shows how much women want power over men. How women want sovereignty but yet also want the love of a man.
The structure Geoffrey Chaucer chose for his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, of utilizing a melange of narrative voices to tell separate tales allows him to explore and comment on subjects in a multitude of ways. Because of this structure of separate tales, the reader must regard as extremely significant when tales structurally overlap, for while the reader may find it difficult to render an accurate interpretation through one tale, comparing tales enables him to lessen the ambiguity of Chaucer’s meaning. The Clerk’s Tale and The Merchant’s Tale both take on the institution of marriage, but comment on it in entirely different manner, but both contain an indictment of patriarchal narcissism and conceit.
The Wife of Bath’s Tale was written in the 1380s as part of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Chaucer is often credited as the Father of English Literature . While it is commendable that he set people on the path of developing English as we see it today, it doesn't automatically mean his works are the best. As a reader I criticise works based on diction, how everything connects together, and multiple lessons that connect to the story. The story was over all an exhausting read and did not give me a good enough ending for it all to be worthwhile.
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.
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.
An anonymous professor. self-dubbed “Professor X“ laments in his article the “Iv, Tower about the flaws of the educational system that he/she must deal with personally. Being an English professor teaching an intro to English n ight-c la.. Profe.or X often must deal with the under, gilled students that attempt to get a degree, despite their lack of proficiency. Professor X 's mtic le is mainly an anecdote that emphasizes the position he is in as -the man who has to lower the hammer, and hold these under-qualified students to college standar.. and often give them the failing grade. Marty Nemko however, author of "America ' s Most Overrated Product: The Bachelor 's Degree", .scusses in his aMcle the overemphasized importance of the bachelor 's degree, and offers grueling statistics and arguments that sup, in favor of some people abstaining from higher education and pursuing other. just as respectable career paths. Zachary Karabell. in his essay *The $10,000 Hoop-, questiorts the wisdom of the automatic r., most Americans give to someone who holds a degree. Karabell insinuat. that a higher education Ls almost overrated. and that street-smarts can never be replaced by a plaque on the wall with a dean 's signature on
Many pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales held a religious position. Some of these people’s personal ideas have caused debates and criticism over Chaucer’s opinion of the Catholic Church. Critics have discussed the ideas that were presented both subtly and openly. Two of the pilgrims and their tales will be discussed: the Prioress and the Pardoner. Both of these tales offer points of criticism in the Catholic Church.
Education is one of the most important heritage that a father can give to his son. Education is the greatest inheritance a parent can leave to the son, being educated is not to acquire knowledge but more than that it be lack of ignorance. Someone once said that “I do not read for more intelligence but rather to be less ignorant”, these words have a world between them, because many people study for a degree not for gain knowledge. Education can be defined as the wealth of knowledge acquired by an individual that would be a common way to define which education, but is also the most seen college students? This is the biggest mistake of most college students, which go to colleges
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale.” The Norton Anthology English Literature. Ed. M.H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2001.
In the “Wife of Bath’s Tale”, the wife lusts for power over men and for independence, as well as contributes to the religious disputes that take place in the Canterbury Tales.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue.” The Canterbury Tales. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2000. 87-98.
Recently I was driving and happened to catch a radio discussion concerning education and it’s impact on success. The host of the show brings up the topic of athletes and their large pay scale. The host fel...