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Gender and roles of women in literature
Gender and roles of women in literature
Gender and roles of women in literature
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In “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath challenges the oppressive standards women are expected to uphold and asserts her agency by reassessing women’s public and interpersonal roles. However, rather than naively disregarding the influence of gender constructs, the wife manipulates the “limitations” that binary oppositions create for her gender in order to dominate the skill of persuasion. Through the careful use of language, the Wife of Bath exploits societal standards placed upon females in order to reconstruct women’s role within her culture and the institution of marriage. In particular, the Wife argues that her opinions should be regarded because her amount of marriage experience …show more content…
However, although she deems experience to be dominant over authority, she situates herself within the realm of authority by insisting on a reinterpretation of scripture, doctrines, and law. According to Helene Cixous, “nearly the entire history of writing is confounded with the history of reason … it has been one with the phallocentric tradition” (879) In other words, because language is not for women and is inherently used to oppress them, women must re-work their understanding of language. Since “words fall almost always upon the deaf male ear, which hears in language only that which speaks in the masculine” (Cixous, 880-881), the Wife manipulates the meanings behind specifically chosen sources do away with others judgments about her seemingly exploitive techniques in gaining mastery within her marriages. For instance, the Wife does not see her many marriages as a sin, “I woot wel Abraham was an hooly man / and Jacob eek, as ferforth as I kan / And ech of hem hadde wyves mo than two” (Chaucer, ll. 55-58). The Wife is trying to illustrate the absurdity of people judging her multiple marriages by noting that many holy men were known to have more than one wife. By loosely referring to these religious icons, the Wife is engaging in the masculine sphere of activity that is reason over emotion. She practices authority by manipulating the scared texts in the same way that she believes men manipulate them to oppress women. However, she does not cite her statements, but jests that her “entente nys but for to pleye” (Chaucer, l. 192). The Wife makes it known to the pilgrims that although she has no claim to authority other than her personal viewpoints, she is simply playing with authority rather than asserting her right to it. By cleverly choosing the wording of “to pleye” (to play), the Wife is utilizing gender binaries
Marcotte, Andrea. “Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales: Rhetoric and Gender in Marriage.” Lumirarium.Org. Anniina Jokinen, 6 Sept. 2012. 5 May. 2014
The use of euphemism and crudeness in “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” is simultaneously unnerving and amusing, and begs the question of how a “wicked” woman like The Wife could ever actually progress in medieval society. Chaucer incorporates subtle allusions to female sexual organs and it is this bluntness (that would raise eyebrows even today) which establishes the Wife as such a powerfully outspoken character. Because courtship in Chaucer’s time was considered worthy of complete submission, the fact that the Wife places such emphasis on domination and even psychological power hints at her being an object of irony (and not a feminist figure “before her time”). It is for this reason that Chaucer’s delicate use of “queynte”- a term from which
The dominance of men in the Middle Ages is unethical, irrational, and dangerous; women are given few rights and the opportunity to earn rights is non-existent. The dictates to the dominance is formed by the internal combination of man’s personal desire and religious interference. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s, The Canterbury Tales, the combined perspectives’ on a haughty Pardoner and non-subservient wife is the stronghold of separation in moral roles. The moral roles between men and women are exemplified in the rankings of religious hierarchy for men are at the top and women towards the bottom. Even prestigious women, ones with noble connections, are subservient to men, but contradictorily have religious affiliations. The “Wife of Bath’s Tale” is a perfect example of defying man’s dominance and the “Pardoner’s Tale”, a problematic reasoning of why selfishness connects moreover to the manipulation. The frailties of religious reasoning however, will cause The Pardoner and the Wife of Bath to be separated from society’s morals.
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...
Thousands of years after this novel was written, men and women still do not know what one another wants. In taking both Psychology and Sociology this year, I hope to gain a better understanding of how both sexes co-exist with one another. Works Consulted -. Chaucer, Geoffrey. A. “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale.”
Leicester, Jr., H. Marshall. "Public and Private Feminism in the Wife of Bath's Tale." Women's Studies 11.1-2 (1985): 157-78.
In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, a reader is introduced to a rather bizarre and heterogeneous group of people leaving for a pilgrimage. The Wife of Bath is the most interesting and lively character of the group. Her "Prologue" and "Tale" provide readers with a moral lesson as well as comic relief. The Wife's "Prologue" serves as an overture to her "Tale", in which she states a very important point regarding the nature of women and their most sacred desires. 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.
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.
Brewer, W, Gwen.. "What women want: The wife of bath and the modern woman." Human Quest. 01 Jul. 2001: 3. eLibrary. Web. 25 Nov. 2013.
When talking of the Medieval literature, one of the most outstanding works might be The Canterbury Tales written by Geoffrey Chaucer, which recorded stories told by 29 pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. Among them, the sixth story, The Wife of Bath's Tale, left the strongest impression on me. After some further study on it these days, it came to me that there are three points in this character that impressed me most: Her fashionable dressing, her sinuous marital experience and her overseas adventures.
In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath is a strong woman who loudly states her opinions about the antifeminist sentiments popular at the time. Chaucer, however, frequently discredits her arguments by making them unfounded and generally compromising her character. This brings into question Chaucer's political intent with the Wife of Bath. Is he supportive of her views, or is he making a mockery of woman who challenge the patriarchal society and its restriction and mistrust of women? The Wife's comedic character, frequent misquoting of authorities, marital infidelity, and her (as well as Chaucer's) own antifeminist sentiments weaken the argument that Chaucer supported of the Wife's opinions.
Her discourse has primarily the purpose of defending women and denouncing the issues with misogynist written authority, but it presents some majors problems for her characterisation as a proto-feminist. Her long monologue focuses a lot on her own private life and is mainly linked to the anti-feminist texts the Wife despises, which makes her characterisation very contradictory. Her discourse is considered very and paradoxical for some of the things she says, but mainly for the way in which she delivers them. There are a few problematic things she says in her prologue, such as her misused references from authorial texts, the almost inventory of men’s negative aspects, and last but definitely not least, her confirmation of many female stereotypes stated in authorial texts. As scholars have mentioned, she uses many references from authorial texts, some being well applied, while others weaken her arguments. One employment of the references she makes use throughout her prologue is twisting them in order to fit her views. This use might work for her advantage, but it can sometimes show a lack of development. As she is able to reinterpret the words of biblical texts, so can authority twist them back so it fits their views. For example, she argues that commanded procreation, God bad us for to wexe and multiplye (28), which could be a logical argument. However, there is no mention that the Wife has had children, so she cannot truly justify her five husbands with the notion of procreation. Another major problem in her discourse is her list concerning the things she does not like in men. This problematizes her characterisation as a proto-feminist, because it can be paralleled to anti-feminist texts. Not only does she use the same strategies as the texts she despises, this
In the “Wife of Bath’s Prologue” and Margery Kempe women are empowered to make decisions regarding their own sexuality. This deviates from the gender constructs of the time period by allowing these women to dictate the course of their own lives: the Wife of Bath chooses to use her sexuality to acquire money and possessions, while Margery Kempe dedicates her sexuality to her spiritual beliefs. By working strategically to gain sexual independence both women move beyond the generally accepted position of a women at the time.
The Wife of Bath's Tale is the story of a knight who is saved from the disciplinary justice portrayed by the king just to confront the queens rehabilitative justice. This story has issues that we are still debating about today. The knight commits a violent crime and therefore has to have disciplinary actions. There are a tremendous amount of themes in The Wife of Bath’s Tale. The themes that I chose to discuss are old age, appearance, and feminism.
As a man fascinated with the role of women during the 14th Century, or most commonly known as the Middle Ages, Chaucer makes conclusive evaluations and remarks concerning how women were viewed during this time period. Determined to show that women were not weak and humble because of the male dominance surrounding them, Chaucer sets out to prove that women were a powerful and strong-willed gender. In order to defend this argument, the following characters and their tales will be examined: Griselda from the Clerk's Tale, and the Wife of Bath, narrator to the Wife of Bath's Tale. Using the role of gender within the genres of the Canterbury Tales, exploring each woman's participation in the outcomes of their tales, and comparing and contrasting these two heroines, we will find out how Chaucer broke the mold on medievalist attitudes toward women.