Stereotypes In The Wife Of Bath

The Wife of Bath
The Wife of Bath written by Geoffrey Chaucer explicates the complex portrait of medieval women. From the story, the wife of bath seems to be shameless about her sexual exploits in the society and makes use of her sexual power to attain whatever she wishes. On the other hand, her actions confirm the negative stereotypes regarding women implying that they are deceitful and manipulative. Although the majority of actions appear to be rebellious against the male-dominated society, as well as, the medieval period for women; whatever she engages in does seem to enlighten the women of her times and brings revolutionary. In the story, this female character stereotype is meant to embody the characteristics of females such as arrogance, …show more content…
As for her, she narrates to the other pilgrims that she is experienced simply because she had been married five times to different husbands. By acknowledging this statement, she was advocating that women had the right to marry the number of partners they wished for. The Middle Ages had the belief from the Bible that women should not be married to more than one husband and that they were never allowed to have sexual relations outside their marriage (Mead). Rather than the wife of bath speaking about her sexual relationships with numerous individuals, she mentions her marriages to a variety of men that probably had the same meaning. Even though such a reason looked blatant, it was bold enough for her during her times. The wife of bath was simply speaking to the males of her time who thought that only men could marry more than one wife, and women were entitled to just a single husband. She was right to advocate for the rights of women during her time because when women were found to have more than one partner, they would be flogged or killed. Subsequently, Chaucer and other critics believe that the use of euphuisms by women in their language promotes negative stereotypes towards them. They view the style of speech that the wife of bath speaks not to be skillful or positive because women fear straight talking and therefore opts for euphemism. The …show more content…
Chaucer had pointed out some of the personality characters of the wife of bath to imply that she was wrong and needed to be criticized. Nonetheless, the empowerment of female sexuality is entirely portrayed through the wife of bath when she insists that certain negativity should not be associated with women, there should be marriage hierarchal system that considers both genders equal and the need for men to be submissive to their wives for them to avoid sexually and physically abusing women. In brief, the wife of bath presents some of the dysfunctional social issues that were never addressed and seemed to be a hindrance to women’s life. Through expressing the need for women to have the right to sexuality, independence, and safety, she can be viewed as a significant feminist during the medieval