The Wife of Bath's Tale

objects. They were to be the perfect maidens and “the emblem of all man 's strivings for self-perfection and self-fulfillment-for his ‘joye’ and ‘solas’ (Hanning, 580).” In the Canterbury Tales, Wife of Bath’s character presents a different perspective of what the audience believe a medieval woman is like. The Wife of Bath is a unique character, one might even say that she is a feminist because she was able to use her feminine power to acquire so much wealth and have her husbands at her command.…

honor and mercy and concern for that other person. It’s not the kind of love you have towards your wife, but the kind you would have towards your closest friends, or your father. You can see these characteristics in each story, with almost all of them apparent in Beowulf between himself and his men. Between the King and Lanval. Between Gawain and the King and also between the king and the knight in Wife of Bath. It is apparent in each story and an important part of each story. The warriors in…

today and throughout history have expressed cupiditas; selfish love. However, there is an equal amount of people who have expressed caritas; unselfish love. Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales showcases a number of characters who either express caritas or cupiditas, much like the real world does. Chaucer used the Canterbury Tales to both entertain his audience and teach his audience how to live a moral life. The Knight on the pilgrimage was a very unselfish man. He lived a life of “chivalry, truth,…

Everything is not always the way it seems, and a person’s true identity cannot be seen with the eye. This applies in both Chaucer’s Wife Of Bath’s Tale and Gardner’s Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, both in which a knight’s honor is tested and their true identity revealed. In Chaucer’s tale, a knight who has raped a maiden is put on trial, and instead of being punished he is given the task to find out what women most desire. He travels all over and asks every woman, but he could not find the…

church and the hypocrisy within, the patriarchy and the idea that men are above women, and the system of nobility and the idea the men are in charge and that nobility is passed down not earned. To begin with, Chaucer in his poems the Pardoner’s Tale attacks the church. This is a big risk; it says in the article Church in the Middle Ages by Alixe that “The Church was the single most dominant institution in medieval life, its influence pervading almost every aspect of people's lives”. This…

describing each gender. There are, however, works that challenge these standards and gives a perspective that goes against the grain of these societal norms. Authors such as Scott Russell of “The Men We Carry in Our Minds”, Geoffrey Chaucer of “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, and Jane Austen of “Pride and Prejudice”, exert the point that there is something more complex than the casual societal norms of the genders of their time. In the essay, “The Men We Carry in Our Minds”, Scott describes the…

in multiple ways. In many ways, the Wife of Bath is a progressive, feminist woman. She is not ashamed of her sexuality, which we can infer from the line “I never used discretion when in love But ever followed on my appetite, Whether the lad was short, long, black or white” because she loves who she wants and doesn 't care what others think (275). She also believes in female dominance over males, at least in marriage. In her tale when the husband lets his new wife choose if she will be young and…

In The Wife of Bath's Tale, Chaucer’s actual meaning for telling this story was to show how people can change if given a chance to. “And of that maiden, spite of all she said, by very force he took her maidenhead”(Chaucer Lines 33-34). “So much petitioning of the king for her, that he condemned the knight to lose his head by course of law”(Chaucer Lines 36-38). In the beginning the knight had raped a maiden and later was going to get his head chopped off for it by the king’s orders. The knight…

Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales are those of a wide range of attributes and status. By examining the tales of the Miller, the Reeve, the Nun’s Priest, and the Wife of Bath, individual values commonly attributed to heroes in the 15th century encompass the quality of chivalry. Though some of the characters may have flaws, a true hero is never free from small faults. Chivalry among the Middle Ages was a heroic quality that can be seen in both Henry V and The Canterbury Tales. A true hero possesses…

begins his tale, the implication that marriage will be the main theme of the story is quite apparent. However, as the reader continues, the matter of obedience and loyalty seem to take form. There is no doubt that The Clerk’s Tale is a direct response to the Wife of Bath whose tale portrayed that women desire complete control over their husbands. The Clerk tells a story from the opposite view and illustrates a totally submissive wife. In this paper, I will propose that in the Clerk’s Tale,…