The Wife Of Bath s Prologue And Tale Essay - 1722 Words

Empowered It is no secret that women throughout history have been seen as the less of two halves. In other words, they were always undervalued and held no real political/social standard within society. In fact their only job in society was to be obedient/submissive to their male counterparts. However, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, a poem written by Geoffrey Chaucer, redefine those ideals set upon women. The poem is broken up into two parts one is the prologue which includes a woman who talks about the rules set by the church and society on women. As well as how society looks upon women who live her life style. She counters these teaching by her knowledge of the bible by introducing biblical men who had more than one wife. It is later revealed that her sole purpose for doing this was not only to gain women sovereignty. But, to create an equal plane for both the husband and wife in order to formulate a happy marriage and to prove that a women can decide to be submissive or not. After the prologue comes the women tale, which she talks about each of her five husband and how she uses her feminine charm to control them. As well as a male knight who suddenly finds himself in a very dire situation and is in need of help. The same women, now old, helps the knight in exchange for his hand in marriage. Both the prologue and the tale fixate on the idea of women sovereignty; self government and it purpose to achieving a happy and successful relationship between bothShow MoreRelatedThe Wife Of Bath s Prologue And Tale990 Words   |  4 PagesThe Wife of Bath s Prologue and Tale is about female empowerment it shows strong protagonists. I believe Geoffrey Chaucer used The Wife of Bath’s Tale to advocate for feminism. Chaucer used a strong female character to expose female stereotypes. It was an oppressive time for women in male-dominated society. During the Middle Ages, Chaucer wrote from a woman’s point of view something that was not normal at that time. He set his feminist ideals through the characters of the Wife of Bath and the oldRead MoreThe Wife Of Bath s Prologue And Tale1338 Words   |  6 PagesChaucer penned one of the great stories on the plight of being a woman as retold in The Canterbury Tales. â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale† points out the fallacy of medieval churches view on women being the lesser gender. â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale† follows a woman, the Wife of Bath, who tries to defend the experiences she has had in her life against the judgements of men. The Wife revealed the prejudice against women at the time by saying, â€Å"it is an impossibility that any scholarRead MoreThe Wife Of Bath s Prologue And Tale2067 Words   |  9 Pagesâ€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Prologue† and â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Tale† by Geoffrey Chaucer functions as a way to both satirize and represent female equality. In particular, The Wife of Bat h challenges the stereotypes of what may appear to be â€Å"normal† treatment of women during this time period (TheBestNotes.com). She identifies the distinctions between â€Å"traditional† gender roles and relates them to passages from the bible, which are then taken out of context. These passages are meant to justify The Wife of Bath’sRead MoreThe Wife Of Bath s Tale Prologue And Story878 Words   |  4 Pagesit back later. In the Wife of Bath’s Tale Prologue and story, this idea called into question. During both of these stories, the idea of give and take is a major topic. Largely because the ones that are getting, are giving up essential control over their lives. In a world where divorce seems to be at an all time high, these tales attempt to shed light on what it would take to create a happy marriage or relationship. During the prologue of The Wife of Bath’s Tale, the wife discusses her thoughtsRead MoreThe Wife Of Bath s Prologue And Tale1697 Words   |  7 PagesSawyer Guest English 470 04 April 2016 Empowering Women, or Degrading Them? Exploring Anti-Feminism in The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale. So often, scholars tend to put a large focus on feminism seen throughout Geoffrey Chaucer’s â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale†, but they may not be seeing the larger picture of it all. There are definitely characteristics of the Wife that make her a strong female personality in the story, but is it fair for us to say that she embodies the characteristicsRead MoreThe Wife Of Bath s Prologue And Tale2098 Words   |  9 PagesAfter reading ‘The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale’ I can see clear indications and agree that Chaucer was an anti-feminist’ by studying in depth both the prologue and tale I am going to show how Chaucer conforms to a patriarchal perspective in which he believes women are inferior to men making them the weak and unstable sex, who are neither socially, politically or economically equal to a man. In Chaucer’s `The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale’, Chaucer opens the book with the strong opening sentenceRead MoreChaucer s The Wife Of Bath s Prologue And Tale1358 Words   |  6 PagesThe Tactics Chaucer Uses in â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale: To Point Out the Faults in His Society After reading Chaucer’s work: â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Tale†, and having been exposed to different interpretations of it, it is now to my knowledge that there have been many critical works that suggests opinions and thoughts about how to interpret both the tale and prologue. There have also been questions asked─one being, â€Å"so, did we actually figure out what women really want†, and the answer toRead MoreThe Wife Of Bath s Prologue1134 Words   |  5 PagesThe Wife of Bath uses bible verses in â€Å"The Wife of Bath’s Prologue.† Further, she employs the verses as an outline of her life to find reason in God to justify her actions. Nevertheless, the purpose of the verses differs within each stanza of the poem. The Wife of Bath is a sexually promiscuous, lustful, and manipulative woman. She marries men one after the other as they get older and die. In order to combat and overthrow the speculation and criticism being thrust upon her by societal norms becauseRead MoreAnalysis Of The Poem The Wife Of Bath Essay873 Words   |  4 PagesAnalytical Essay on the â€Å"Wife of Bath.† Question One Description of the Wife of Bath in terms of her progressive feminism, rhetoric style, and her prolog tale. Comparison of her as a women attitude towards general medieval attitude towards women. â€Å"Wife of Bath† Tale provides insight and understanding of the women change and their view mainly in matters of family, marriage, authority and marital affairs. The Prolog is double the size of her Tale, a lot of information about marriage group is givenRead MoreGeoffrey Chaucer View and Change on Judgement968 Words   |  4 Pagesthese people, but he actually did something about it. He had problems with some social aspects during the 1300s which included the church, gender differences, and hypocrisy. He wrote about these problems in a set of tales widely known as The Canterbury Tales. The first is The General Prologue which describes a pilgrimage to Canterbury that many people endure, but on this specific journey, twenty-nine different people travel together to Canterbury. He uses two types of satire to relinquish these opinions