The Wife Of Bath Feminist Analysis

Geoffrey Chaucer’s poem, The Canterbury Tales, contains a character that is read by some as “the epitome of the modern feminist,... takes on the men at their own game of name-dropping, and refuses to be silenced by the patriarchal powers that be” (Evans, Ruth, and Johnson 1). The Wife of Bath contains all the negative stereotypes of women portrayed by men of the Medieval time period, such as being a chatterbox and promiscuous. Which greatly contrasts the other fictional women of her time, who were silent and suppressed in literature. The Wife’s argument “offered a defence of women against their misogynist critics” (Rigby 137) of the Medieval Age. Presented as a critic who beats males at their own game, and gives her the authoritative stance

on sex and marriage (Rigby). Her methods seem anti-feminist and unwarranted, as she wishes to dominate her many husbands. The method of advocating for women through manipulative sex and speech would paint an unsympathetic picture of women in the Middle Ages. On the other hand, I find her usage of sex and marriage cunning and essential being as they were the only methods obtainable in such a dictatorial time for women.
The Wife of Bath addresses three weighty social issues that during the Medieval Age, exemplified the severe suppression faced by women.

The first is the negative association of women and sex; the second was the structure of marriages hierarchy system which created both “master and slave” (Evans, Ruth, and Johnson 64) placing women at the bottom allowing men to be there dominate masters, while women were held as their compliant slaves; and the third was the physical and sexual violence men forced upon women. These are critical issues that were definitely not discussed by men publicly and without a doubt not by women. For the Wife of Bath to exhibit such weighty issues and an advocate for the benefaction of women in such a position was pioneering. “She views words, like sex and money, as strategic weapons in the war between the sexes” (Hansen 2). The Wife of Bath is slick in her delivery of speech in both the Prologue and Tale. Her Tale retells all of the subjects of sex, marriage, and violence that she first brought to light in her Prologue, and frames them with an entertaining style in order to make her message captivating to her audience, which at the time fundamentally male. It was very right-brained to construct these topics in such a suggestive way to bring

interest.
The Wife of Bath starts her prologue advising her kindred Pilgrims, who were for the most part male, that she is experienced in light of the fact that she has been hitched five times. By saying she is experienced she is telling her audience members that she has had a lot of sex. "Experienced" (Chaucer 1) is one of the numerous sexual substitutes that she utilizes as a part of her introduction and story. She protects the measure of times she has been hitched keeping in mind the end goal to advocate for having the capacity to have different sex accomplices. Amid the Middle Ages the conviction, which was broadly held , typically translated from the book of scriptures was that ladies were not permitted to have sexual relations outside of marriage. So by working inside of that social structure, if a lady weds a wide range of men, she can engage in sexual relations with a few accomplices (Rigby 139). Rather than coming right out and talking specifically about having intercourse with various individuals, she rather discusses her numerous relational unions to diverse men, which for all intents and purposes has the same meaning."In this open circumstance, she herself stays open" (Leicester 11). This is only a less limit strategy, however sufficiently strong for such a period.
These metaphorical strategies for handing-off her message are still capable whether they are forthright or not. It is basic to consider that the Wife of Bath is identifying with a crowd of people of for the most part guys, who live in a hugely patriarchal time period. To be a lady and a supporter for the rights for other ladies to have control over the measure of accomplices they have sexually is noteworthy. Men were permitted to have intercourse outside of marriage, have more than one partner, however ladies were alienated, ousted, in some cases even murdered on the off chance that they did a wonder such as this(Classics of World Literature). By utilizing some indirect dialect her audience members can hear the message without getting quickly defensive.
It is direct by the subject maintained by The Wife of Bath that she has an altered feeling of her sexuality and takes pride in it. She sees sex as positive, and God given. She contends her perspective by expressing that "God expressly instructed us to increase and multiply" (Chaucer 1). Her elucidation that it is God's configuration for people to have intercourse and repeat. She likewise is not in the same personality of the misanthropic thought that excellence and goodness are specifically connected with virginity. She says in light of the individuals who hold celibacy up as a perfect: " In truth, I will not keep myself wholly chaste; when my husband has departed from the world" (Chaucer 1). She claims not to respect or wish to be a virgin. She wouldn't exchange her notoriety from lower class to high society if implied surrendering sex. She just does not think it advantageous. " In wifehood I will use my instrument as freely as my Maker has sent it" (Chaucer 2). She plans to utilize the capacity of becoming so as to have intercourse hitched however much as could reasonably be expected. These are qualities that were not usually given to ladies in those times. Sexual certainty and mindfulness are foundation women's activist goals. Ladies should be modest, honest, and act with uninterest towards sex. The Wife of Bath battles back against these generalizations. She is not honest or unmindful, she is "experienced", she is not timid and uninterested, she wants to utilize her "instrument," which means female sex organs, as much as she can on the grounds that she altogether appreciates sex.
The second subject that she takes head on of genuine contention in her Prologue is the chain of importance of marriage. She trusts that spouses ought to be meek to their wives, that ladies ought to be the ones in control and have "sovereignty'. A sample of her perspective is the point at which she is theoretically tending to a spouse, "come near, my spouse, let me kiss your cheek. You should be all patient and mild, and have a sweet, tender conscience, since you thus preach of the patience of Job" (Chaucer 5). In these lines she is communicating that men ought to be tolerant and uninvolved towards their wives (Rigby 151). This thought of exchanging the controlling status to the female is made most clear in her fifth marriage to Janekin. This over prevailing and misogynistic man tries to make the Wife of Bath feel as wiped out by perusing to her the most sexist entries out of religious writings. When she removes the pages of his book and he hits her, she says that, "God knows, so too do more of us than I. This made him insanely furious with me, but I would not tolerate him in any case" (Chaucer 7). The wife declines to permit her spouse to wield control over her regardless.
The last subject which is displayed all the more so in her story, then tended to in her Prologue is savagery by men towards ladies. In the Middle Ages it was not a wrongdoing to mishandle ladies, whether through hitting, or assaulting them, and some of the time it was alright to try and kill a lady.; particularly on the off chance that she had been unfaithful (Evans, Ruth, and Leslie Johnson 43). A wife was a man's property. In the event that a lady was unmarried, she was the property of her dad. There were a few special cases, it was not legitimate to assault a high class or imperial ladies, however their spouses absolutely could at present hit them or have them executed on the off chance that they conferred infidelity. These were the vicious social structures that are similar to the treatment of slaves that encompassed the Wife of Bath.
In that setting, it can be perceived how stunning it was for The Wife of Bath to resist this sexist thought that ladies ought to be controlled. Whenever Jankien, her fifth spouse, hit her and made her go hard of hearing in one ear, she declined to act meek towards him. She even hit him back: " I hit him on the cheek," (Chaucer 8). Her activities, however apparently amiable in our time period, were colossal in the Medieval Ages. Her failure to go about as she wished in her own particular existence with the level of freedom that she supported for was considerably more communicated through her story than that inside of the Prologue. Her story envelops the majority of the questionable subjects exhibited in her Prologue and in light of the fact that it is her own particular story, she can live by implication through her solid female characters of the wife and Guinevere.
The story takes place during in the old days of King Arthur. One of Arthur’s knights was riding home one afternoon and happened by a traveling maiden. He mistakenly interpreted her to be a peasant and raped her. As was discussed earlier, it was legal to rape a peasant but not a high class or royal women. This woman who was attacked was of high class and so the knight had broken the law, a crime that usually held the penalty of death. However the queen intervened and made a deal with the knight. If he could find out before a year and ten days were up, what it is that women desire most, she would spare his life. This knight, who symbolizes the horrific, violent, and misogynistic treatment of women, is placed in the most vulnerable position of submissiveness under a woman; ”placed him entirely at the queen’s will, to choose whether she would save him or let him die” (Chaucer 9). The tables of power of women over men turn in this tale consistently to send the message that the Wife of Bath strongly believes in: that men should submit to women. By having her main character be a man of such high authority, a knight of the Round Table, and having him to engage in one of the most heinous acts of violence towards women; makes his submission first to Guinevere and later to the woman who becomes his wife that much more powerful.
The Wife of Bath's Story consolidates the majority of the imperative points she raises in the Introduction and specialties them into a good in a story. The strengthening for female sexuality is shown through the Wife who is sure and very inspired by having intercourse, the savagery of men against ladies is seen through the "knight's moral stupidity" (Evans, Ruth, and Johnson 38), and the chain of command of marriage is broken by having the knight be tame to his wife. These issues were defined through contention by the Wife in her prologue, however when she places them into the story and made the good be that ladies are truly in control, whether men think so or not, makes those issues more open.
The Wife of Bath speaks truths of the broken social standing and oppression that was rarely addressed. As a female character who is attempting, in spite of the numerous snags that lie in her way, to spread an avowing message for a lady's a good fit for self-sufficiency, sexuality, and security, she ought to be seen as a women's activist symbol(Classics of World Literature). At the point when seen from the setting of the time period she was living in, the absence of aptitudes, training, and opportunities as a rule accessible to ladies, it is difficult to translate the Wife of Bath as something besides an awesome women's activist character in Medieval writing.