How far do you agree that in the battle of the sexes it is the wife of Bath who has the most effictive weapons and armour?
The Wife sees the relationship between men and women as a battle in which it is crucial to gain the upper hand,
'Oon of us two must bowen, douteless'
Her armour was indeed necessary, as in Medieval England, women definitley were second class citizens who were viewed as goods and chattels, with no financial independence. They were often beaten, and it is clearly in the Wife's nature to protect herself.
She uses weapons like her sexuality and her youth to make her husbands suffer, so much so that they feel impotent.
'How pitously a-night I made hem swinke!'
This weapon was highly effective with first three husbands who she managed to dominate,
'I hadde hem hoolly in myn hond'
and they handed over 'lond and hir tresoor' as she with held sex in order to get her own way with them.
The Wife also used a weapon of deceit and she clearly comments that women have this weapon from birth,
'Swere and lyen as a womman kan'
She tells her audience tha...
... middle of paper ...
...nce is that she is once again in control as
'he yaf me al the bridel in myn hond
To han the governance of ous and lond'
Although her marriage with her 5th husband is never resolved and there is no winner because he dies whilst she is on a pilgrimmage, she has a good battle, and probably the most difficult of all her husbands.
The overall picture is of a Wife who has certainly fought the good fight. Not surprising as her astrological sign is Mars, implying strength in war. She is still confident and looking to welcome husband number 6.
Wife of Bath. Her character is noted to be strong and bold and we learn
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.
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...ptions of women and their roles as wives. Rather than opposing binary oppositions, she engages with them, using skilful language and exploiting her sex in order to disprove patriarchal thought. In particular, the Wife argues for experience over authority, demonstrating the biases that coincide with authoritative scripture and doctrine. By undermining the validity that is associated with authoritative arguments, the wife ironically is able to make dominating arguments, and propose new interpretations of masculine texts and label them as experienced opinions. She does not necessarily overturn masculine supremacy, but rather transforms it absoluteness into relativity. Through her prologue and her tale, the Wife of Bath promotes the re-interpretation of gender customs and marriage dynamics using feminized language, successfully giving a prevailing voice to women.
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...
The irony of the story is that her husband is alive, but she is dead when he reaches home. The tragic death of her husband help her to grasp the beauty of life and the fact that she does not have much more time to live it. In an hour of time she comes to peace with herself and wins her "battle".
Of all the numerous females depicted in literature throughout the centuries, Geoffrey Chaucer’s Wife of Bath has inspired more in-depth discussion and gender-oriented analysis than the majority. She is in turn praised and criticized for her behavior and her worldview; critics can’t seem to decide whether she is a strong portrayal of 14th century feminism or a cutting mockery of the female sex. Both her tale and its prologue are riddled with themes of conflict and power struggle between the sexes, and the victor of this battle is not made explicit. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales being a parody of various societal conceptions and literary conventions, it is likely that this ambiguity was entirely intentional. By comparing the Wife of Bath and her husbands to the characters presented in the tale, Chaucer makes the subtle but sharp implication that there is no true winner in the battle of the sexes; the essential qualities of men and women are equally unsavory, and harmony between the two can only be achieved when an illusion of triumph has been constructed separately for both parties.
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.
When reading the wife of Baths prologue and then her tale one can not help but to see the parallels present. The major parallel that exists is the subject of sovereignty. Who has it, which wants it, which deserves it and what will you do to get it? First we see that the Wife claims to have sovereignty over each of her husbands even though some were harder to gain dominance over than others. Then there is the tale where we find the answer to the question, “What do women want?”, sovereignty over their husbands. Finally we see the Wife’s idealized version of marriage in her tale. The hag gains control over the knight by forcing him to marry her, then giving him control to decide her loyalty, he cant chose so he gives up all control to her just like that and it’s over, the end, they live happily ever after.
In The Wife of Bath’s Tale, the queen use her powers of persuasion on the king to gain the authority to punish the knight. The author illustrates this in the text by stating “queen and other ladies also so
Going back to her prologue, The Wife seems to be criticized for something different she does by each of her husband 's. She can easily be seen as violent, demanding, too controlling, too lustful, and many other qualities. The Wife argues that no matter what women do or don’t do, they will always be criticized, “Thou seyst that som folk desiren us for richesse,/ Somme for oure shape, comme for oure fairnesse/ And som for she kan synge and daunce/ And som for gentillesse and som for/ daliaunce,/ som for hir handes and hir armes smale” (lines 257-262). While she makes a great point, she interjects these opinion’s during her tale as well. Interrupting the flow of her story to display her opinions in this way can lose the audience 's focus of the true meaning of the story. The story itself does a great job of bringing the role femininity into play without The Wife’s interjections. In the beginning of the tale, right after the queen orders the knight to go on his quest she gives him some hints. “Somme seyde wommen loven bset richesse;/ Somme seyde honour, somme seyde jolynesse,/ Somme rich array. Somme seyden lust/ abedde/ And oftetyme to be wydwe and weedde” (lines 925-928). This shows that women want more than materialistic things, contrary to popular belief. While these things aren’t bad to have, it means nothing if they do not have the power over their significant
As I walked in to their bedroom, I found my mother sitting on the bed, weeping quietly, while my father lay on the bed in a near unconscious state. This sight shocked me, I had seen my father sick before, but by the reaction of my mother and the deathly look on my father’s face I knew that something was seriously wrong.
In “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” the Wife of Bath discusses marriage, virginity, and most importantly the question of dominion. In the “Wife of Bath's Prologue,” it opens with a quote “I have the power, during all my life over his own body, and not he.”(Norton 164-165) This quote proves how much dominion and power she desired and took by default. She is a strong-willed and dominant woman who gets what she wants when she wants it. She cannot accept downfall no matter how it is presented to her. She senses that this is the way things should be and men should submit her. She should not be controlled or told what to do by others, especially by a man. She displa...