Women In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

Women are viewed in a variety of ways, depending on culture and opinion. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales walks us through various tales of men and their interactions with women. Chaucer also includes the tales of the Prioress, the two nuns and the Wife of Baths. From a close reading of the text, it could be assumed that women were associated with little to no value. They were used primarily for sexual reasons and weren’t considered sacred. Through the Wife of Bath’s tale, I plan to address how the text is written through a first person view. The Wife of Bath’s was in her forties. She was most notable for having five husbands, which draws attention to my first argument. The Wife of Bath’s addressed that she had been married since the age of twelve …show more content…
Followers of a religion read and follow a book that was organized by the prophets of that religion. Good religious individuals will closely follow the book, making sure not to commit any sin. If they do happen to commit sin, they are told to pray to God and ask for forgiveness. She doesn’t deny that she had been married five times, but she also notes that God wasn’t present at any of them. By her mentioning this, she tells us that she knows that her marriages might have not been noticed under God. The fact that she had five marriages make matters a little stranger. This is the first sign of negativity towards women. To claim God, but to not practice religion properly is considered blasphemy. This also makes her seem less of a woman because she has devoted herself to more than one man in her lifetime. Marriage is supposed to be ‘till death do us part’. While her husbands did die, the statement counts for after death also. Whichever spouse doesn’t die isn’t necessarily pushed to marry again. They should have still been faithful to the dead spouse. By marrying off numerous times, Wife of Bath’s forfeited some of her rights of being a woman. She starts to become demoralized from her