The Wife of Bath’s Prologue is apart of a much larger story known as The Canterbury Tales, which is about a pilgrimage taking place between London and Canterbury. In the tale and prologue of The Wife of Bath written by Geoffrey Chaucer, a woman tells of her story about her life of being married five different times while expecting no judgment in her character. During this time, in the early 1400’s, it was unheard of for a woman to be open so freely to as many men as she pleased while in return she defended her actions by referring back to scripture. The Wife of Bath describes herself as a sexually hungry woman by also claiming she dominated her husband. The author Chaucer had created a world where he portrayed women as unfaithful, superficial,
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Through the whole prologue she truly shows herself as a self-dominating woman and is also humble while admitting to being less than spiritually perfect. The Wife of Bath admits to her deceiving ways and through her deception in every relationship she succeeds to remain very powerful. “For the Wife of Bath, money, sex, and marriage are all interlinked and none can exist without the other” (Smith, Nicole), this is the way she viewed the world. In her final marriage to Jankyn the Wife begins to show some vulnerability claiming she loves him the best despite the fact he beats her. It is not only that he beats her, but he forces her every night to listen to an awful tale where all you heard from her was, “Who wolde wene, or who would suppose The wo that in myn herte was, and pyne” (lines 792 – 793)? Though the wife had much confidence she had finally admitted to suffering to pain. Through this pain and what the reader can imagine suffering, this could have motivated her to be the person she was and fight against men who wanted to dominate and embrace the feminist inside …show more content…
Having multiple husband and lovers while having control over them only showed what she as a woman can do, be the dominant one. Through her tale she was able to portray men as weak and unworthy to have such power in life or in a relationship, that there would always be consequences for them. “The Wife of Bath presents herself as the authority on marriage and marital life. She comments on the social and legal position of women in marriage and daily life” (Librarius). One can say that the wife could be possibly known as one of first feminist characters in early
Through the whole prologue she truly shows herself as a self-dominating woman and is also humble while admitting to being less than spiritually perfect. The Wife of Bath admits to her deceiving ways and through her deception in every relationship she succeeds to remain very powerful. “For the Wife of Bath, money, sex, and marriage are all interlinked and none can exist without the other” (Smith, Nicole), this is the way she viewed the world. In her final marriage to Jankyn the Wife begins to show some vulnerability claiming she loves him the best despite the fact he beats her. It is not only that he beats her, but he forces her every night to listen to an awful tale where all you heard from her was, “Who wolde wene, or who would suppose The wo that in myn herte was, and pyne” (lines 792 – 793)? Though the wife had much confidence she had finally admitted to suffering to pain. Through this pain and what the reader can imagine suffering, this could have motivated her to be the person she was and fight against men who wanted to dominate and embrace the feminist inside …show more content…
Having multiple husband and lovers while having control over them only showed what she as a woman can do, be the dominant one. Through her tale she was able to portray men as weak and unworthy to have such power in life or in a relationship, that there would always be consequences for them. “The Wife of Bath presents herself as the authority on marriage and marital life. She comments on the social and legal position of women in marriage and daily life” (Librarius). One can say that the wife could be possibly known as one of first feminist characters in early