Women In The Canterbury Tales

People have many different opinions on what women most desire in life. When Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the “Canterbury Tales”, he addressed this question head on. It is certain that different women would like different things, but in the same regard many women want many of the same things. In the Canterbury Tales, it is prevalent that the different stories show that different women want different things. Some women could just want money, while others just want love and vice versa. It is very well known in the Canterbury Tales that women want many things such as love, money, sovereignty, etc. From the wife of Bath’s tale, it is made clear that women want respect and the upper hand. When reading this, it is strange to think about the fact that …show more content…
It seems that every woman has always wanted the upper hand, but is just now able to have this want fulfilled. Women want respect from men and this is the part that used to be a very difficult aspect for men to comprehend. Women and men are no different from each other, so why should any woman be treated differently than a man? The answer is simple in that they should not. This is not the only difference that used to be between men and women, however. The fact of the matter is that men have always had it better than women whether it be in the workforce or at home. According to a statistic from the United States Department of Labor, there were actually more women with jobs between the years of 1995 and 2005 than there were men. Looking upon this statistic, it brings about wanders of equality. All women desire equality, and that is what it seems as though the wife of Bath was going for here, even if she did say that she wanted the upper hand. Since men were put up on a pedestal for everyone to see, this may have irritated the wife of Bath. Even today women are still fighting for that equality that they desire. In the times of Chaucer, women were not thought of as highly as men, so they desired it even more then. In today’s