The One and Only Wife of Bath

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The One and Only Wife of Bath
In The Canterbury tales, Chaucer uses The Wife of Bath as a representation of what it was like for Women in the Middle Ages to be striped of equality and bow to the otherwise male dominated society. For the representation of women Chaucer uses the Tales of “The Scholar”, “The Second Nun “The Reeve’s”, and “The Franklin” and many others in a very dry, pretentious manner to steer readers into the view of how a women of the Middle Ages should be as a so called “virtuous” wife or woman. The concept of marriage plays a major part in manifesting the idea of the issues of inferiority of women. The perception rendered as women having to be obedient and inferior figure to their husbands or male counter parts. Chaucer gives give the audience much to think about in terms of The Wife of Baths being she is the total opposite to women of her time. The wife of Baths can be seen maternal figure that possess as a threat of breaking in the societal system by empowering the status of women.
In the Wife of Baths Prologue, her true colors unfurl which gives the reader the sense of who the Wife of Bath is and where her mind is in terms of the gender inequality. Her prologue also lays down the path to the direction her tale is going to go. The wife of Bath makes it clear that more than anyone it is her that has experience in the field of marriage just from her tone one can see she is a woman with a desire for authority. The Wife's Prologue is the framework that allows room for making distinctions on all the issue women in the Middle Ages face and indeed with her hearty an well define details she is left to be an unforgettable icon of the Canterbury tales . It is suspected that the Wife of Bath feels strongly on the notion...

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...t the society was not ready to hand a woman control in a marriage which is why Dorigen’s husband was forced to keep the matter a secret but he is closer to being as modern as the Wife of Bath is than Griselda’s husband the Scholar. It compliments Chaucer’s modernistic way of thinking in terms of women and their roles. Although the Wife of Bath is slightly imperfect as it shows the disconnection between Women, Society and Christianity. The Wife of Bath cannot obtain approval from society because she is a woman and she cannot obtain enlightenment from a church because she is an impure woman married to five different husbands, clearly woman in Chaucer’s society have no empowerment unless they defy the system including the church there is no liberation otherwise. Chaucer understands this and has blessed literature with the one and only heroine, the wife of Bath.

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