Comparing Margery Kempe And Alison In The Wife Of Bath's

Both Margery Kempe in The Book of Margery Kempe and Alison in The Wife of Bath’s Prologue represent unconventional medieval woman posed as a rebellious contrast to the traditional idea of femininity in medieval society. While their methods of achieving this title of rebellion share similarities conceptually, the way that they put these ideas into action are strikingly different. What brings these two characters together however, is that they are able to gain individual independence and societal influence, which gives them complexity and depth as characters, while also pointing out the stereotypes associated with medieval women. Alison and Margery share some similarities in how they find their individual independence, and these commonalities are how they are able to break away from the traditional role attributed to women during this time. For both women a large portion of their independence comes from their …show more content…
Like Alison, Kempe took control of her own sexuality, but instead of using it in terms of economics, she related it to her own spirituality and connection to God and Christ. In Women and Gender in Medieval Europe: An Encyclopedia, Kempe’s decision to remain chaste while married is explained because, “zealous factions in the church began to ascribe a special meaning to the purity associated with chastity…as a realization of the angelic life that the elect would enjoy at the world’s end” (123). Kempe seems to agree with this interpretation of chastity equating to a better afterlife, because when her husband asks her to break her vow, she tells him that he, “shall have more reward in heaven” if he will, “suffer [her] to make a vow of chastity” (427). This prospect of a better afterlife associated with her vow of chastity gives her argument a solid foundation for her to stand on against her husband’s demands for the payment of her marital