Dame Alice Quotes

Dame Alice: The First Feminist Character in Western Literature During the Middle Ages, men are known to have more power than women, controlling them and taking advantage over them. Women do not have the same rights as men and they are treated differently. Men are superior while women are inferior. Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales changes the society of the Middle Age completely in The Wife of Bath. In The Wife of Bath, the main character of this tale, or the one telling this tale, is a woman, the Dame Alice. The Dame Alice tells her tale as if she has nothing to hide and she explains the role of women in her tale and she explains her tale, thus, becoming the first feminist character in Western Literature. The Dame Alice has married five times already. She sees nothing wrong with remarrying and she thinks that it is normal. She points out that the wise King Solomon had more
But the Dame Alice works her magic once again. She has such a power that she can make a man who is as powerful as her, hit her, then beg for her forgiveness and give her everything that he is worth. She accuses a man of stealing her land from her and she punches him in his cheek. Of course he reacts to this, and he hits her back, making her fall to the floor and lie there still. She acts as if she is dead and then she awakes. She makes him feel guilty for stealing from her, guilty for hitting her and causing her “death”. The man finally feels the guilt working inside of him and he offers everything he has, everything he owns, and everything that he worked for. He gives her his life and his hand. She feels the sovereignty and she feels the superiority that she has over him. She feels sad for him and feels that he should be blessed for giving everything he owned for her. She feels the superiority and sovereignty, the feelings that a feminist has when she has reached a victory (p.