If a person’s appearance is a determinant of the type of person she will be, the actions she will carry out, and the life she will lead, the Wife of Bath takes full advantage of using her gapped tooth as an explanation for who she is and why she does what she does. The entirety of “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” is an introduction into the Wife of Bath’s life, specifically her romantic relationships. She is under the belief that she has been destined to marry many men and live what many in the Middle Ages would have considered a scandalous lifestyle; nonetheless, she is neither repentant for her actions nor is she willing to stop any time soon. In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the subject of physiognomy, which suggests that the presence of specific physical characteristics may predispose a person to perform certain behaviors, carry particular personality traits, and exemplify specific stations in life, is represented by the Wife of Bath and the presence of two conspicuously gapped teeth, which she believes justify her penchant for marriages, remarriages, an open attitude toward sexuality, and a strong female archetype uncommon during the period.
The Wife of Bath would not be considered a prudent person by any means, especially considering the social customs of the Middle Ages that required women to be chaste and obedient. Despite these social conventions, she is sure of herself. The Wife of Bath introduces herself and a few of her numerous husbands before she tells the other pilgrims why she leads her particular lifestyle: “Housbondes at chirche dore I have had five/(If I so ofte mighte han wedded be)” (ll. 6-7). During these lines, the Wife of Bath claims she has had five husbands, but the questionable legality...
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.... She uses her asset to gain for herself, but she does not take from anyone else. To placate herself she looks to the stars. She does not justify her actions because they are out of her control; she is only doing what nature intended her to do.
The Wife of Bath presents the argument that her marriages, sexual openness, and powerful female personality are all the result of her gapped tooth. Something so simple has created an obligation to destiny to seek out and marry many men. She is neither ashamed nor repentant for her actions because she believes they are out of her control. She is proud that her actions allow her to fulfill her destiny and make herself happy and powerful in the process. Her gapped tooth is a conspicuous physical feature acting as a symbol to everyone around her to reveal the kind of woman she is and the type of life she is destined to lead.
The irony comes in when Chaucer adds that she is a gap-toothed woman in scarlet red leggings, who has been married five times. This description does not sum up with the image of a hard working, devoted Christian woman according to the doctrine of the church. Chaucer's physical description is important because it makes the Wife of Bath more acknowledged ; she reeks of feminine
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
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.
Huppé, Bernard F. "Rape and Woman's Sovereignty in the Wife of Bath's Tale." Modern Language Notes 63.6 (1948): 378-81. The Johns Hopkins University Press.
For this project I chose to pursue and research the Physician's character in the Canterbury Tales. The actor I chose to cast to play the role as the Physician in a movie was Matt Smith. Smith is an actor of twelve years and has plenty of experience playing an eccentric and mysterious character in the television show, Doctor Who. I selected him because he fit many requirements that I thought best suited the personality and physical traits of the original character that was described in the Canterbury prologue.
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.
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.
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.
The investigation into whether or not Geoffrey Chaucer was ahead of his time in terms of his views on feminism has been up for debate for hundreds of years. The Wife of Bath’s Prologue is just one solitary
“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.
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...
Chaucer, in his female pilgrimage thought of women as having an evil-like quality that they always tempt and take from men. They were depicted as untrustworthy, selfish and vain and often like caricatures not like real people at all. Through the faults of both men and women, Chaucer showed what is right and wrong and how one should live. Under the surface, however, lies a jaded look of women in the form that in his writings he seems to crate them as caricatures and show how they cause the downfall of men by sometimes appealing to their desires and other times their fears. Chaucer obviously had very opinionated views of the manners and behaviours of women and expressed it strongly in The Canterbury Tales. In his collection of tales, he portrayed two extremes in his prospect of women. The Wife of Bath represented the extravagant and lusty woman where as the Prioress represented the admirable and devoted followers of church. Chaucer delineated the two characters contrastingly in their appearances, general manners, education and most evidently in their behaviour towards men. Yet, in the midst of disparities, both tales left its readers with an unsolved enigma.
The wife of bath strongly argued in favour of female “maistrye.” She argued this in the prologue and used the tale to bring the message home. Her arguments are weakened however by the destructive and careless behaviour of the Wife of Bath. She openly laughs at them (“I laugh whan I thinke”) when she thinks of how she made her husbands toil at night. She doesn’t seem to regret the...
A woman who was gap toothed, was supposed as a woman who was bold and lecherous. In many ways the wife does honor to her stereotype, for she is indeed a bold woman, and expresses her sexuality in ways that aren 't considered “modest”. She proclaims,“In wyfhode I wol use myn instrument (sexual organ) / as frely as my makere hath it sent” ( Wife of Bath 's Prologue, 149-150). Although it may seem a salacious statement, it is through her outward sexuality that she expresses her internal want for independence. The wife of bath once again justifies her beliefs by referencing to Christian doctrine, specifically in God 's written laws of human procreation. However, she doesn 't simply want to have sex on a whim, after all she does qualify her statement by saying that only “in wyfhode” will she engage in sexual activity. What the wife of Bath is revealing, is that she wants the choice to use her body as she, and the lord, wills it it to be
The Wife of Bath is predominantly known for controversial views and her rebellious actions towards the traditional social expectations of women regarding sex and marriage. Therefore, by Chaucer highlighting the issues of mandatory lifelong celibacy for widows and women only being able to have sex for procreation, he is inviting the audience members to embark on the bigger picture of the unfairness and repression of sexuality for women in marriage. The Wife of Bath discloses that for her first three marriages she sought out older wealthy men for sex and