The Wife of Bath Alisoun first introduces the work of art using a prologue which she uses to justify her numerous marriages; she gives examples of prominent men who had several wives and argues that living a virtuous life does not always apply to everyone; she questions what the genitalia was made for. Alisoun states that the genitalia was created by God solely for procreation and comfortably sates that she will use her instrument as freely as her maker had sent it (Chaucer 150). Alisoun paints quite a negative image of women, she implies that chastity should not be observed but women should be solely driven by their sexual desires. This is not the reasoning from the feminist school of thought. To add on to that, the prologue is characterized by a obsession with sex, which she uses to manipulate her husbands, of which she has had five, into acquiescing their land and money to her control, which is perfect example of the traditional figure of the wanton woman who is selfish, licentious, greedy, and dangerous to men (Justman 345). The feminists fight for fairness when dealing with women and not women being perverts, selfish and manipulating men by using their genitalia to …show more content…
The Wife verifies this when she says, “And she obeyed hym in every thing/ That myghte doon hym plesance or liking” (Chaucer 1255-56). This is a clear proof that the tale, in reality does not support feminism despite the fact that the wife theoretically seemed to advocate for female empowerment, a totally coward move is shown when the wife goes quiet and does only what the husband likes. The feminism school of thought believes in ‘walking the talk’ rather than just advocating for things and not taking
Although this book was intended to portray a feminist lens, there is still a lot of patriacary shown throughout the story. In the novel men have emotional control over the women, leaving them in a submissive trance towards men. Feminism is defined as ¨the advocacy of womenś rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes.¨ This novel does not provide much equality between the sexes.
This quote suggests that the Wife of Bath believes all women are incapable of keeping a secret, which is an untrue and harmful stereotype. Her main opinion on women seems to be that while they wish to appear wise, pure, and good on the outside, it does not mean they are perfect internally and many
In The Canterbury Tales, a set of short stories by Geoffrey Chaucer, 29 pilgrims tell stories about their life in order to keep each other entertained on their pilgrimage to Canterbury. One of the pilgrims, Alice, also known as Wife of Bath, particularly stands out. She tells her story of her five husbands, and explains to the readers her ideas of women. These ideas include that women are morally weaker than men, something that she “fixes” by gaining power in unusual ways, such as lying to them or withholding sex. She also gains control over them by always telling them they are in the wrong, something that she considers power because they then believe her and consider her better than them.
Gloria Steinem once stated, “A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.” This quote is saying that women don’t need men, but the world has made the impression that they do. In the Wife of Bath’s Tale, women desire power over their husbands. In Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Tale, in lines 214 and 215, it states, “A woman wants the self-same sovereignty Over her husband as over her lover, And master him; he must not be above her.”
The first step in surpassing the patriarchy is believing in feminism, and since The Wife of Bath has a feministic personality; she is able to transcend the patriarchy. “He must not be above her” (Chaucer 286) is the line that the knight says in his defense. This defense grants him the pardon and shows, the tale that Alisoun tells has her opinion that a female wants to have equal rights to the male; therefore this expresses that she has a feministic belief. Also, in her tale, “he (the king) gave the queen the case/ And
The Wife of Bath: An Analysis of Her Life and Her Tale The Wife of Bath’s Prologue stays consistent with the facts that experience is better than the societal norms, specifically those instilled by the church leadership. Chaucer uses the Wife of Bath to display the insanity of the church, but through switching and amplifying their view of men and chastity onto the opposite gender. The church doctrine at the time held celibacy in an idolized manner, forgetting the inability for humans to ever reach perfection, or live up to this standard. They also did not hold women in a high regard at all, again this is where Chaucer flips the role, as the Wife of Bath describes her five marriages in her prologue, essentially describing each as a conquest, where the result is her having all control.
Geoffrey Chaucer, an English poet during the middle ages, wrote The Canterbury Tale’s Wife of Bath; he was born from a humble middle-class family and climbed his way up through the aristocracy. The Wife of Bath main protagonist is molded by a sexist culture of her times. My goal with this paper is to shed light on The Wife of Bath’s main character. A story of a smart, strong-willed woman who manipulates her way to financial and personal independence, is she a feminist or a smart and scheming woman?
How does this all relate to modern day issues? While the aforementioned essay within her book was not necessarily written all too long ago, feminism has changed and adapted to fit in with younger generations. As of right now feminism is currently quite the hot topic throughout the media in both western regions as well as more conservative regions. Oppression continues to remain hidden within “chivalrous” behaviors and ideals as presented by male dominated institutions that attempt to make decisions on behalf of women. Take for example, the war on Planned Parenthood and female healthcare.
Throughout her introduction of the tale, and the story itself, we see the Wife of Bath as an experienced, intellectual woman, who despite living in a world of patriarchal power, provides for herself financially, emotionally, and physically. As a feminist icon, she confronts serious social issues that illustrate the subjugation women faced. During her prologue and her tale, it is very clear that the Wife of Bath is proud and not ashamed of her sexuality. She views sex as a good ideal, and argues it, using references from the Bible, that God’s intentions
Women in the middle ages tend to be push aside as the Chaucer displayed in “The Knight’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”. In the medieval system, people believed that women are to be educated by their husbands, that women are vicious, and therefore they believe men were always right. Women’s position in society was determined by the unfavorable attitudes of leaders. Women also was to seem to be following the Mother of Christ example to preserve their virginity. When the Wife of Bath was created there was no awareness of feminine desire for equality.
In the book of Wife of Bath’s Tale, Geoffrey Chaucer shows the role of a woman being weak creatures while men are economically powerful and educated. Women are seen as inheritor of eve and thus causes
In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, Chaucer’s message was to teach men to respect women more and let women also have power in a relationship. The reasoning behind this message is because society in the medieval era did not respect women and Chaucer was attempting to teach that through poetry. The man in the story raped a woman and before being sent to death he was saved and given the opportunity to learn about what he did wrong. People don’t get second chances in real life, so writing a poem about the impossible and showing true enlightenment is Chaucer’s way of being a hero. The man learns from the old women about control and how he should love her and respect her for her and not her looks.
The way Chaucer describes The Wife of Bath can easily be displayed by the actresses of today or the characters that these actresses portray. The Wife of Bath is a lot like Marilyn Monroe and Emma Stone specifically. Marilyn Monroe was very provocative and came off as a whore, but was still widely accepted. The Wife of Bath is a whore and dresses provocatively for her time. She wears the scarlet red to signify who she is to other bystanders.
Many women in The Canterbury Tales appear to be beautiful, pretty, and sweet. They do not reflect the true mindset of 14th century European women. Women were known for not being successful as their husbands, but not in the case of The Wife of Bath. She is able to become a successful merchant as we learn in her prologue. This already makes her a definable character who represents feminism ideals because she was able to do something that most women are not known to do which is sell and earn a living from it.
With this quote Chaucer is using satirical satire to make fun of women by saying that women are hypocritical and manipulative. At the beginning of the prologue the Wife