Anti-Feminism In Geoffrey Chaucer's Tale Of The Wife Of Bath

The tale of the Wife of Bath, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is anti-feminist. It tells the story of a young knight that must go on a journey to avoid punishment for his crime. At the end of the tale, the Knight is rewarded with a beautiful and faithful wife. This story is anti-feminist because it avoids punishing the Knight for his crime and makes gross judgements of all women. The story begins with a knight raping a young woman. Medieval law states that the punishment for rape is beheading. The Knight is saved by the Queen who instead gives him a year to solve a riddle to avoid death. The Knight wanders the countryside and asks many people the answer to his riddle; what do women want most? He receives many answers: money, sex, good looks, remarriage, and to be free. On his way back to the castle the knight is sad because his time to solve the riddle is almost up and he still has not found the answer. The …show more content…
Not only does the Wife of Bath introduce this act in a very nonchalant way, but she also says that he was not that bad because he only took the young maiden’s honor and did not impregnate her. Also, the character of the young maiden serves no other purpose besides being raped. After her character is raped by the Knight she is never mentioned again in the entire tale. Some might argue that the tale is feminist because in the next scene the Queen chooses to spare the Knight and the King does not decide his fate. This is not feminist because the Queen’s decision to spare the Knight was simply not very important to King. Whether or not the Knight lived did not really affect the King’s life. If the Queen had made the decision of whether or not to invade another country then it would be a feminist action, because it would have affected both her and the King, but her ruling over the Knight is not a true show of power over her husband and is not truly