Wife Of Bath Feminist Essay

The Wife of Bath is often looked upon to when observing the ideals of feminism in the Middle Ages. She is interpreted by people as either a strong feminist or a character for misogynists to make fun of. In my opinion, the Wife of Bath is used for Chaucer to portray his ideas on why women should be controlled and not allowed to have more freedoms. The Wife of Bath points out all of these specific characteristics that women posses that prove they should not hold power equal to, or greater than, men. In the her prologue, the Wife of Bath explains how she uses her sexuality to gain control and power over her husbands (152-155). She exploits her sexuality for wealth and land as well. This is as anti-feminism as it gets. Feminists would preach about power for things such as their intellect, not for their body. She would tease her husbands until they would pay her money and give her nice things. She was just selfish. A real feminist would try to be independent of men, not rely on their gifts and benefits. She would often try to back up this behavior with poorly interpreted passages of the bible. Since she felt the need to have an excuse, it can be assumed that she knew her actions were silly and simple-minded. Her thoughts of her fifth husband were especially silly and dumb. Also in her prologue, the Wife of Bath explains the love she had for her …show more content…
More often than not, the Wife of Bath and other characters in her tale were dependent on men and did all they could to keep one by their side. Whether the Wife of Bath actually loved them or not, she always wanted to have a husband to “take control of”. In reality, the men were taking care of her, and she would be nothing without their love and monetary support. The whole premise of the Wife of Bath would be completely overturned if she did not have men in her