Wife of Bath's Prologue, by Geoffrey Chaucer is one of the first pieces of literature that introduces us to a smart, intelligent, and independent woman. One of the most important aspects of the wife's character is her sexuality. In a day when women were not prone to speak out about their sexuality, the wife does and not only that, she brags about how much she enjoys sex. The wife is not afraid of her sexuality and she wants everyone in her presence to know this about her. She is a shrewd businesswoman and men do not intimidate her. With the Wife of Bath, Chaucer creates a character that resists the patriarchal domination of the day and motivates other women to do likewise. Chaucer establishes the wife's character early in the prologue to give readers a hint of her strength as a character. When readers reach lines 45 through 78, they have very little question that they are dealing with a fierce and assertive woman. This portion of the text allows readers a glimpse into the wife's past and gives them a sense of what kind of woman she is. This passage begins with the wife stating she has been married five times and she is looking forward to her next husband. Marriage is important...
She states she does want to abstain from sex for very long while she is waiting for her next husband. She is looking for him and when she finds him, she will welcome him whole-heartedly. She states, "Welcome the sixte, whan that evere he shal. For sothe I wol nat kepe me chaast in al" (51-2). She defends her position on this matter by Quoting St. Paul, who declared women are free to marry if their husbands die. This tells us that the wife is intelligent to think for herself. She will not let anyone make her feel inferior because she has wed so many times and she certainly won't let them make her feel bad for wanting to marry again when the Bible clearly states it is fine for her to do so. She even tells readers how Paul says marriage is better than "to brynne" (58). She dismisses people who gossip about being married more than once, mentioning the fact that Abraham, Lamech and Jacob were holy and married more than once. Here we see the wife was smart enough to debate this topic with anyone brave enough to engage her. She goes one step further, defending the act of sex by saying, "For hadde God…
Wife Bath: Feminism Chaucer Chaucer appears to create the Wife of Bath shine intentionally from the rest of the characters in the novel; she has been possibly one of his most controversial figures since her contradictions as to what she states and just what she does. The writer's formation of her character offers one significant objective which has been to surprise his readers. Chaucer chooses to consider each and every bad
But while it is true that he loved the funny side of life, he was also quite genuine and sincere in his purpose to expose the superficialities of social roles. "If we look at the whole corpus of his work, we see his tragic poems all interrupted, unfinished, or transfigured into celestial comedy" (Garbaty173). Chaucer unlike some tragedy masters of his time was not too concerned with gloom and sadness
They were seen as wives, mothers, daughters and usually "portrayed in relation to a man or group of man" (Klapisch-Zuber285). While they were given little freedom outside this restricted sphere, critics observe that medieval women were granted substantial autonomy within that sphere. Men "imposed a closely circumscribed domain in which women exercised a degree of autonomy... primarily the house, a space both protected and enclosed, and, within the house,
The destination is a holy and venerated site, one that should inspire devotion, a spirit of penance, and peace; and it is fitting that a merry man should be the one to invite the other pilgrims to the game of the telling tales. Unlike Dante's pilgrimage through the afterlife, which tends toward a much more spiritual focus, Chaucer's pilgrimage is earthly in the sense that its main focus is on
Perhaps no one has more of a sense of humor about herself and the world than the Wife of Bath. The Wife of Bath shatters a number of stereotypes of the Middle Ages a contemporary reader might possess: first of all, she is socially powerful. As a widow, she is rich, and she is willing to speak her mind. Chaucer's evident delight as a narrator in her lustiness shows that
The contrast between the pardoner and the content of his tale also shows that from a literary perspective, Chaucer was illustrating a new subtly of character. What a character thought he was like (a holy man) might not be who he or she actually was. This could be revealed through involuntary 'slips of the tongue,' like the pardoner condemning greed, even while he was a greedy person in life.
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