Geoffrey Chaucer uses the threefold narrative frame in The Canterbury Tales to provide his own personal reactions on each character and the stories they tell. With this narrative frame, Chaucer has both characters, the Pardoner and the Wife of Bath, represent a more general commentary on society, not only having an opinion on each pilgrim, but also having a strong critique on the society in which the pilgrims preside. Both the Pardoner’s and the Wife of Bath’s prologues is similar, containing elements of hypocrisy that reveal each character’s true nature; but oppositely, Chaucer use of these contradictions in each tale creates two different social commentaries. Using irony in the Pardoner's tale, Chaucer exposes the church’s deceitfulness,
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The Wife of Bath is a character who passionately believes in the equality of sexes. She does not shy away from telling everyone of her five husbands, saying that it is liberating and freeing (259). Comparing herself to King Solomon, she explains that he had plenty of wives and she should be allowed to have half as many (259). Able to stand her ground in her bold “scarlet dress”, she preaches that women should control their husbands and that they "shall be both my debtor and my slave/ And bear his tribulation to the grave/ Upon his flesh, as long as I'm his wife./For mine shall be power all his life" ( 274, 262). A very liberating speech, the Wife of Bath radiates feminism and equality among men and women; however, her actions contradict what she says and what she believes in does not coincide with what she does. She says that women should be powerful in the relationship, but she only marries men for their money and uses her body in order to keep them at her will (267). She herself is in multiple loveless marriages, using her body and her chastity in order to make these marriages last. Ironic to her statement that women who are promiscuous can be free, her actions bring up the question of whether or not using her body to keep her marriages is actually being free. She cannot simultaneously keep a marriage and be free. Chaucer puts the Wife of Bath is a contradiction in which there is no right and wrong way. It is clear that she struggles with being an all powerful female while living in a patriarchal society that does not allow her to have power. The Wife of Bath’s complexity shines through the conflicts she faces while trying to be someone society pushes her not to
The Wife of Bath is a character who passionately believes in the equality of sexes. She does not shy away from telling everyone of her five husbands, saying that it is liberating and freeing (259). Comparing herself to King Solomon, she explains that he had plenty of wives and she should be allowed to have half as many (259). Able to stand her ground in her bold “scarlet dress”, she preaches that women should control their husbands and that they "shall be both my debtor and my slave/ And bear his tribulation to the grave/ Upon his flesh, as long as I'm his wife./For mine shall be power all his life" ( 274, 262). A very liberating speech, the Wife of Bath radiates feminism and equality among men and women; however, her actions contradict what she says and what she believes in does not coincide with what she does. She says that women should be powerful in the relationship, but she only marries men for their money and uses her body in order to keep them at her will (267). She herself is in multiple loveless marriages, using her body and her chastity in order to make these marriages last. Ironic to her statement that women who are promiscuous can be free, her actions bring up the question of whether or not using her body to keep her marriages is actually being free. She cannot simultaneously keep a marriage and be free. Chaucer puts the Wife of Bath is a contradiction in which there is no right and wrong way. It is clear that she struggles with being an all powerful female while living in a patriarchal society that does not allow her to have power. The Wife of Bath’s complexity shines through the conflicts she faces while trying to be someone society pushes her not to