Gender Roles In The Wife Of Bath

The knight shows his true chivric colors by saying “My lady and my love, my dearest wife, I leave the matter to your wise decision.” (406-407) By allowing his wife to chose for him he displays true chivalry. He is also allowing to choose what she wants for her husband; this is a recall to the answer she gave him to save his life.

No because since the message of the story is to let the woman make the decisions we can infer that the knight will have to learn from this and add it to his life as well.

Being the species we are, everything is trial and error; taking that into consideration, we are only human… but this does not dismiss the inexcusable acts of a Knight who is now being tried for his actions. Being of noble and high status, you are held to a certain level of expectations; in this case the Knight is expected to be chivalrous, humble and level-headed. The Knight raped a woman and was given an ultimatum to death by the queen if he could figure out, “What is the thing that women most desire?” (Chaucer, “The Wife of Bath's Tale” 51), and if he could not, then death would come to him in twelve months when he returns to give an answer. On the journey to find

“In such lordship as men have over their wives; and in order that they might lead their lives together the more blissfully, of his free will he swore to her as a knight that never in all his life, by day or

The knight endangers his manhood accepting Lady Bertilak’s purpose. So, we can say that manhood includes Christian, chivalric and loyal codes that are the cornerstone of a moral value. Moreover, it is normal that men make the first moves but in this case, Lord Bertilak’s wife makes it. As June states “The Lady is the one “making the first move”, so to speak, but it is ultimately Gawain who decides what is to become of those actions” (24). She does it because of her self-confidence and feels herself a superior being to him which was not normal at all in women at that time.

order to stay with her, he had to dismiss all but 25 knights because he did

Firstly, Ramon Lull who wrote The Book of the Order of Chivalry demonstrates all the rules of being a knight. Knights must be “most loyal, most noble in courage” (Lull, 181) and as stated in the introduction, must “uphold and defend the women” (Lull, 185). Knights are supposed to have so much courage that they must rid the world of the bad, all while protecting it. They will through love “restore charity and learning” and through fear “restore verity and justice” (Lull, 181). This shows that knights will use contradicting means to accomplish their goals, especially when they are faced with an evil woman which contradicts itself, as typically a woman is not seen as evil but as someone who needs help. It is to be noted that “justice ought to

As he looks back as a Squire he learned about Chivalry, the rules of Heraldry, horsemanship and practice the use of weapons and the skills required of a Knight. It was also their duty to enter into the social life of the castle and learn courtly etiquette, jousting, music and dancing. He wonders today as he welcomes all his knighthood friends and if he has what it takes to fight and serve his Lord according to the Code of Chivalry. In the morning he and others heard at Mass and a lengthy sermon on the duties of a knight. The entry into Knighthood was highly ritualized which started with a Night Vigil in the Chapel of the Castle. The day started with him have a ritual bathing - his body was thoroughly cleansed as a symbol of purification. He wears a white vesture to symbolize purity covered by a red robe that symbolized nobility. He wore black shoes and even his horse were black armor that symbolized death. His sword and shield was placed on the altar as he knelt at the Chapel altar, in silent prayer, for ten hours. A sponsor took possession of the sword and shield, which had been blessed by the priest. The sword and shield were passed to the lord who was to conduct the knighthood ceremony. Two sponsors in a Public ceremony presented the Medieval Knights to the lord. The Medieval Knights swore an oath of allegiance to the lord and swore the following oaths:

   Despite its glorified accounts of the chivalrous lives of gentlemen, the Knight¹s Tale proves to be more than a tragically romantic saga with a happy ending. For beneath this guise lies an exploration into the trifling world of the day¹s aristocratic class. Here, where physical substance is superseded by appearance, reality gives way to disillusioned canon and emotion is sacrificed for honor. Naïve idealism emerges as the dominant characteristic of the seemingly flawless knight and we, as the reader, are asked to discern the effect of this fanciful quality on the story as a whole.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a classic example of the behaviors of a medieval knight and how the code of chivalry works within the courts and towards women. When Sir Gawain visits Bertiak’s castle, he respectfully treats the elderly woman and Bertiak’s beautiful young wife with the same level of dignity. “To the elder in homage he humbly bows; the lovelier he salutes with a light embrace. They welcome him warmly, and straightaway he asks to be received as their servant, if they so desire” (lines 973-976). The treatment of women is an essential part of the code of chivalry. If Sir Gawain had only given attention to the pretty young woman, then he would not have been abiding by the knight’s code of honor. He also keeps the code of chivalry intact when he says “Lover have I none, nor will have, yet awhile” (line 1790). Sir Gawain says this to Bertiak’s attractive wife, when she tries seducing him in the bedroom, which proved Sir Gawain’s loyalty to Bertiak, upholding his chivalric code. Honorable Sir Gawain demonstrates the knightly code of chivalry throughout the poem.

In the story of The Canterbury Tales: “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, the main character is a young knight who finds himself raping a maiden who he just so happened to see near a river that day. He was going to be severely punished for doing so. Already, this knight is seen as a bad and immature one. A knight’s job during this time period was to protect women and be chivalrous towards them, but he most definitely did not show that trait throughout this story. His punishment was to find the answer to the queen’s question and if he couldn’t he would be beheaded. Though he finds his answer, his attitude hardly changes. On the night of his wedding, he tells his fiancé, the hag, that he doesn’t want to marry her because she was ugly and old, and he didn’t want her.

2) Considering the crime the knight committed by raping an innocent girl is unfair but he was punished justly for his crime. Having him killed by King Arthur's decision would have been too harsh for him. However, the queen's response about him going on a journey in search of finding what all women desire for a year and a day was mild even though it's stressful and humiliating for a knight. Another punishment came on his wedding day with his newly wedded bride. He was forced to do so because he had no other options which left him "in a state of sadness and disgust" for sometimes while his wife keep smiling. Furthermore, on his wedding night Chaucer depict that there was " no joy or feast at all but heaviness of heart and sorrow " for him. He

Another major reason I chose being a knight as a profession is based simply on the fact that all knights have to be males. Back in the day, females had little to no rights. It would also be pleassant to be a male and possess power that females did not have. Even women of status and power did have the right to choose for themselves. A woman’s fate is often predetermined by gods of the King whom is a male figure. In the Canterbury Tales, the female characters are often over shadowed by the male character. There are several examples in the Knight’s Tale that help me illustrate my point.

In The Canterbury Tales, the knight is a modern type of knight. Although the description of this character’s personality is vague, it is not hard for modern day people to visualize him. In the prologue, it mentions that the knight follows the five basic ideals that a good knight should possess: “chivalry, Truth, honour, generousness, and courtesy” (Chaucer 4). The knight fought in the Crusades, wars in which Europeans traveled by sea to non-Christian places and tried to convert people’s culture by brute force, which was considered noble and brave hearted. From his love of the five basics ideals previously mentioned to his impressive military career, the knight is a perfect example of how a knight should be represented. Indirectly, the tale is discussing both the knight and the idea of how a knight should be. The tale does not describe much about the knight as in physical appearances and characteristics of this knight but as the tale comes to an end, the book starts to unfold how this story connects with this character. The tale itself is not important yet it’s what the tale represents that is important, such as pursuing courtly love, risking death, and respecting women. All of the previously mentioned attributes are ones that knights should possess to achieve expected standards.

In “The Canterbury Tales” by Chaucer there is a knight that he talks about. I choose the night as one of my favorite because in his description he sounds like someone you would want to walk a long journey with him. The knight is truthful and I think that is already a good start because sometimes when you are truthful people like to talk to you and be around you. It’s also something good that people say about you and being truthful is a good thing. I think that he has been taught well because he also has some honorable knight and I visualize a good knight having a lot of respect and also being respectful too. With the respect that he has I would think that he didn’t