The Differences between Wife of Bath and the Prioress: Unlike most women being anonymous during the Middle Ages‚ Wife of Bath has a mind of her own and voices herself. She thinks extremely highly of herself and enjoys showing off her Sunday clothes whenever the opportunity arises. She intimidates men and women alike due to the power she possesses. Wife of Bath has been married not once‚ but five times. The Prioress on the other hand‚ serves as a foil to the Wife of Bath. Chaucer describes her as
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Beginning her tale unannounced‚ the Wife of Bath bursts onto the scene taking the entire pilgrimage by surprise. Her agenda is to engage in the medieval debate on marriage‚ confronting the scholarly authority of the church from the standpoint of common experience. Her main emphasis is on maistrie and believes that women should have the upper hand in marriage‚ making winning and retaining maistrie their main objective. She also refutes canon law which says you are only allowed one husband‚ distorting
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Canterbury Tales. Throughout the Wife of Bath’s prologue‚ the wife illustrates her actions to be equal to those of a feminist. The wife pleads to stand out without conforming to societal standards. Feminism is defined as the doctrine advocating social‚ political‚ and all other rights of women equal to those of men. During the 14thcentury‚ it was likely that the Wife of Bath was thought of as a destructive rebel. In modern times our society considers the Wife of Bath to be a revolutionary feminist who
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is a commonplace when digging into the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale to stress the anachronism of calling Chaucer a feminist. Yet it is also a commonplace to find Chaucer attractive for his play with gender in his book‚ nowhere better demonstrated than in the reconstitution of various misogynist diatribes into the charismatic Wife of Bath who talks back defiantly to “auctoritee”. If Chaucer is not actually endorsing the strident voice he gives to the Wife‚ he is certainly making play with textuality
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would be taken to court to be punished. In King Arthur’s court of law‚ his queen can implore him to give her the case and choose what to do with the criminal. In the Wife of Bath’s tale written by Geoffrey Chaucer there was an old woman that used rules of chivalry so a promise kept from a knight to her wouldn’t be turned down. In the Wife Of Bath’s tale a knight is taken to court to be punished for violating a maiden. In King Arthur’s court‚ Arthur condemned that the knight should be put to death and
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That saying some life’s journey can change a boy to a man‚ well that quote runs fluid with the story of The Wife of Bath. The reader follows a young knight’s journey to find what women want the most‚ the knight sees the trip as just a way to escape capital punishment but what he learns will be a true test to his growing up. The young knight may not be the smartest and most likely character but what he does leave the readers with is a lesson for all sorts and shapes. His journey for searching for
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The Wife of Bath: Female Empowerment In Medieval Europe women traditionally occupied specific gender roles. Some of these roles that women were expected to carry out included wife‚ peasant‚ artisan and nun. Women during this period were constantly told by society and the church that because of their gender they were meant to be weak and submissive to men. Geoffery Chaucer a poet in the late medieval period sought to challenge these constraints placed on women during this period‚ through the
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medieval society are the Wife of Bath and the Prioress. Through both the Wife of Bath’s Tale and the Prioress’s Tale‚ Chaucer articulates his opinionated views of the etiquette and conduct of women in the 14th century. By examining both the Wife of Bath and the Prioress’s tales‚ we are able to see the stark contrast between their social standards and demeanors. Chaucer’s description of the two characters clearly depicts the Prioress as a better woman than the Wife of Bath according to 14th Century
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The character of the Wife of Bath is clearly feminist. She indicates this by her extreme ideas of female "maistrye" and statements such as "I have the power duringe al my lyf upon his proper body‚ and nought he‚" which is extremely feminist. However‚ Chaucer makes us see the Wife of Bath as inconsistent‚ at times illogical‚ and also amoral and adulterous‚ The prologue and tale is spoken by a woman of supposed vast experience‚ yet was written by a man. While the prologue and tale may be seemingly
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The Wife of Bath and the Role of Women The Prologue to the Wife of Bath can be analyzed to reveal many medieval conceptions of women in England. Certain factors like religion‚ tradition‚ and politics and social etiquette had a monumental effect on the social views of what women’s role should be. The Wife of Bath has been called “the first feminist” because of her refusal to adhere to the traditional way of life expected from her by society simply because she was a woman. The time period in which
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