Wife of Bath Essay

Among all the characters in The Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath is arguably the most famous and iconic. She is objectively among the most well-developed characters in the story, with much more emphasis being placed on her own personal history rather than the tale she tells. This is even noticed by the characters, who note that “this is a long preamble of a tale” (Chaucer 831), implying that the Wife of Bath was meant to be the standout character of the story from the start. With the negative stereotypes

The tale the Wife of Bath tells about the transformation of an old hag into a beautiful maid was quite well known in folk legend and poetry. One of Chaucer’s contemporaries. But whereas the moral of the folk tale of the loathsome hag is that true beauty lies within, the Wife of Bath arrives at such a conclusion only incidentally. Her message is that, ugly or fair, women should be obeyed in all things by their husbands. The Wife of Bath is not beautiful, but forceful and energetic. Her bright clothes

Ironies of Feminism Chaucer paints a pretty good picture of who the Wife of Bath is in the delivery of her lines. The narration given by the wife also helps the reader understand what Chaucer both as the poet, and as the pilgrim think of her. Although Chaucer presents the Wife as a strong and bold woman, we can interpret her to not be well respected and that Chaucer is a misogynist. The wife is a very bold woman, who is resilient and holds her beliefs tightly to her. Even in the way she expresses

The prologue to the Wife of Bath’s tale sets up her story. Her tale is not as long as her prologue, but it follows the life of the Knight after he rapes a girl. Throughout the Wife of Bath’s story, the Knight goes on a journey to discover the answer to what a woman desires most in her life. The moral of the story is our actions have consequences. The Host’s, Harry Bailey’s criteria states that the tale must be entertaining. Not only must the story be entertaining, but it must be instructional. According

women for centuries, however the women in both The Wife of Bath and King Lear violate just about every gender role of their time. The wife of Bath, Cordelia, Regan, and Goneril are all unapologetic head-strong, independent, powerful women. These women totally contrasted their literary peers of their time who were relatively submissive and docile, such as Queen Wealhtheow from Beowulf and Bertilak’s wife from Gawain and the Green Knight. The Wife of Bath herself follows no gender rules or roles, she believes

responsibility of doing the housework along with being a caregiver. Considering the Wife of Bath, a female character who didn’t follow these social structures, sure made for an interesting character. In Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, he introduces a character known as the Wife of Bath. It is her turn to tell the stories, and her tale begins discussing her past marriages in the prologue. Married five times, the Wife of Bath tells us about her own marital issues, and the way she was able to manipulate

Additionally, the Wife of Bath was not submissive. Even though her husbands were “the head(s) of the household,” Alison managed gain some control in their relationship. “A husband I will have, I will not desist, who shall be both my debtor and my slave. (Pg. 291)” Essentially, if the Wife of Bath wanted her husband to be productive or helpful, she would withhold sex. “Until he had paid his ransom to me; then I would allow him to do his foolishness. (Pg. 307)” When the lack of sex wasn’t enough, Alison

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the poems “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” and “The Wife of bath’s Tale”, the main character Alisoun, explains she has come to such a point in her life where she has to defend her actions. She has had five marriages and has been harshly judged for it. She questions the constructs and the rules placed before her and challenges men by focusing on women’s rights. Her motivation is solely to live as well as she possibly can, but she argues for all females who have

controversial characters, the Wife of Bath. Dame Alison, the Wife of Bath, gained her notoriety by deviating from the normal ideals of women in this time period. While most women in this time period were expected to be obedient to their husbands, Alison demands the submission of men her relationships. Like all of Chaucer’s characters, Dame follows her prologue by telling her own story, which directly parallels her own morals and beliefs. As seen in her prologue, the Wife of Bath was first married off when

In The Wife of Bath’s Prologue, lines 694-716 The Wife of Bath’s argument would correspond with one of a modern day feminist. She includes books like Valerius (Valerie) and Theophrastus (Theofraste), and if they were written by women and not by misogynistic men that they would include the virtues of women their gloriousness, and be filled with all the wrong doings of men and how awful they truly are. How they use their short comings as fuel to lower standards of ideas about women. Women were not