The Wife Of Bath In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

The Wife of Bath was able use to the talents and gifts she had to secure herself a position where she could be self reliant in the male dominated world of the fourteenth century. [Add stuff PENGUIN] In the time in which Canterbury Tales was written “...women [had] fewer jobs from which to choose [and] appear[ed] to have been employed largely in unspecified service roles...” (Penn 1). One of the few jobs that was available to women was being a weaver. [reword! Penguin] When the Wife is introduced, she is said to be a very talented weaver, who “in making cloth she showed so great a bent / She bettered those of Ypres and of Ghent” (Chaucer 15). Her talent in weaving was greater than that of places known for their clothes. And with this talent …show more content…
Rather, she interacted with them where she was in a position of equality or superiority. When interacting with her husbands, she is portrayed as the one in control of the relationship. In all five of her marriages, she is the dominant partner, though she arrives to that spot in different ways. [Reword, edit, redundant? Fix, PENGUIN] With her first three husbands, the ones she said were “good … rich and old” (Chaucer 263) she was able to outwit them, leading them into thinking they were in charge when they were doing her bidding. [Reword? Look for more evidence PENGUIN] In talking of one, she says “...he felt flattered in his heart because / he thought it showed how fond of him I was” (Chaucer 269). She is able to give her husbands a sense of superiority, flattering them and letting them have just enough to be willing to do almost anything to get more. [Penguin Reword, evidence] She was able to outsmart [Penguin new word?] them, her “special delight … the use of misogynist dicta to forestall any protests by her old husbands ” (Oberembt 292). She uses their actions against them, using them to put herself in an advantageous position in the relationship [PEnguin reword]. Using their misogynist association of masculinity to reason and femininity to sensuality (Oberembt 290), she turns their arguments upside down, pointing out examples of their sensuality. [REWORD FIX] She uses their desire for sex as a way to make money, …show more content…
[REWORD PENGUIN] In her prologue, she gives her listeners an example of the things she would say to keep her husbands in check. [Reword? Penguin] In this spiel [New Word Penguin] a reader can get a grasp of a way of how she was able to control her husbands. One of her main arguments is finding similarities between her own actions and her husband’s actions and then criticizing how he acts. [Reword penguin] For example, she says that whenever she “as much stroll towards his house” (Chaucer 265) her husband flips out [New Term penguin], but she does not have a similar reaction when he looks at a pretty woman. She shows them the inconsistencies when they do one thing and expect no reaction from her, but when she goes and does something similar, they feel allowed to flip out. [Really reword and Adjust PENGUIN] She also takes their actions and points out how contradictory they are [Reword penguin], making them look foolish. One things she says in her example argument [FIX penguin] is a husband “say[s] it is a danger to her chastity” (Chaucer 267) should a woman dress up (Chaucer 267), but then criticizes her should she not dress up. (Chaucer 267) [Reword! Check citing Penguin]. BY telling them this, she is basically showing them how stupid they are and that they do not always make sense. [REWORD!!!! PENGUIN Add more?] Alisoun herself said “I owe them nothing, paid them