Preview

Powerful Women In The Canterbury Tales

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
671 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Powerful Women In The Canterbury Tales
Powerful Women What would you think of someone who has been married five times, and uses their body as a bargaining tool to get what they want from their husbands? Would you consider that to be trashy and of low morals or smart and powerful? Or would you compare them to the modern day celebrity? The Wife of Bath from “The Canterbury Tales” is an older woman who lived sometime in the middle ages, who loves to argue and be right. Elizabeth Taylor is a stunningly beautiful 1950’s actress who was the type of person that ”got around a lot” and was sexually scandalous. The Wife of Bath and Elizabeth Taylor relate to each other very closely. The Wife of Bath and Elizabeth Taylor are both women of high class and sophistication. They are also very …show more content…
In “The Canterbury Tales”, The Wife of Bath is described to be someone of high fashion, wore expensive clothing, and was materialistic. “Her hose were of the finest scarlet red and gartered tight; her shoes were soft and new. Bold was her face, handsome, and red in hue. A worthy woman all her life” (Chaucer 466 – 469). Even though the Wife of Bath is not seen as being very attractive, the clothing she wore and her attitude towards people makes her seem like a woman of high class. In comparison, Elizabeth Taylor was famous and known for being astonishingly beautiful. “Early on, scouts were riveted by the astonishingly lovely child with violet eyes and a sultry, almost adult, beauty.” (Rosen). Taylor, being a famous actress, could afford to wear name brand clothing. Taylor was also very well mannered and the carried herself with high …show more content…
They both are experienced in the field of love. The Wife has been married five times and believes that she is the expert when it comes to love and marriage. She loves to argue with the other travelers and prove that she is right. Elizabeth Taylor has been married eight different times, has been involved with multiple affairs and scandals over the course of her life, and has been in the view of the public eye. They also are considered women of high class. The Wife wears only the finest clothing made of the finest materials. The way she carries herself, she almost thinks she is more worthy and more educated than everyone else. Elizabeth Taylor was famous for and known for being one of the most beautiful women in the country. Since she was an actress, she obviously could afford to wear the most expensive clothing she could find. Overall, the Wife of Bath and Elizabeth Taylor were very similar in a few

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Her clothes seemed to be very expensive just by long at them and how nice they are and to wonder how she is getting all the young guys when she’s not all that good looking. It’s very interesting how she’s getting all these guys and she’s not attractive she’s got a gap, she’s older, she’s always wearing a weird hat and especially on Sundays the hats bigger than the one from the previous days of the week. Wife of Bath was a very happy women always in a good mood dancing. Wife of Bath has a lot about her that says she like having a lot of men by her side especially younger then her.…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Wife of Bath contrary to what many critics believe is successful in exposing and mocking misogyny. When the Wife strives to dominate her husbands, she is acting as a famous critic Magee said "contrary to the traditional medieval view of marriage as a reflection of the relationship between Christ (husband) and his church (wife)". The implication is that the relationship between Christ and the church is reversed, so that the church is domineering and controlling instead of Christ. The Wife is further jeopardizing the traditional scheme of the medieval family and medieval woman because, in the traditional medieval family, the husband had control over his wife. This is what is being exposed in The Wife of Bath, the fact that Alison is completely the opposite, and by her being so outspoken she exposes the idea that she is challenging the oppressive society and the medieval church, and some may say succeeds in a big way, Religiously women were still being held accountable for the fall of mankind. Women were to remain pious and comply with their husband's demands, sexual and otherwise The Wife of Bath only complies with her husbands sexually when she gain…

    • 1594 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    This interpretation is weakened by the fact that the Wife of Bath herself conforms to a number of these misogynist and misogamist (antimarriage) stereotypes. For example, she describes herself as sexually voracious but at the same time as someone who only has sex to get money, thereby combining two contradictory stereotypes. She also describes how she dominated her husband, playing on a fear that was common to men, as the Pardoner’s nervous interjection reveals. Despite their contradictions, all of these ideas about…

    • 83 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Wife of Bath is an admirable women, but at the same time, she is not. Her actions may be to protect and take care of herself as a woman with no rights though they are not good and respectful to her husbands.…

    • 202 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When writing, authors often know how they want to portray their characters, like if they want the person to stand for a greater meaning or to exist simply for ridicule. But some authors fall short of this mark and create wishy-washy figures that neither prove nor disprove an idea. This is the case with Chaucer and his portrayal of the Wife of Bath. The writer neither ridicules the woman for her multiple marriages nor does he use her to ridicule the gender norms of the time.…

    • 86 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Wife of Bath's story compliments her (first or early on scene), since it bolsters the subject of control of men by ladies what she worked hard with every one of her spouses. Dissimilar to the next individuals who recount stories (or falsehoods), she doesn't speak to a social class, be that as it may she speaks to every one of the ladies in the medieval…

    • 407 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Wife of Bath is named “Alis” (326), which is short for Allison in modern English. Interestingly, she shares the name with the young wife in “The Miller’s Tale,” also from Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales. The name, then, represents a challenge to the patriarchy as much as the person does. Within “The Miller’s Tale,” Allison commits adultery and sees herself as above her older, but unarguably devoted husband. The Wife of Bath is also guilty of the same things. Her first “three men were goode… and olde” (203); thus, the character of Allison within “The Miller’s Tale” could likely be a younger embodiment of the Wife of Bath. However, Allison in the tale is portrayed in a way that makes her appear entirely cruel and unjustified in her actions. The Wife of Bath argues that she is justified in her actions because of the harsh inequalities created by the patriarchy. The difference between the two could be attributed to a situation where Chaucer’s own beliefs conflict with the beliefs of his characters.…

    • 1400 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Showing her rank by her elegant clothes and red stocking, also eluding that she is likes her lovers. Wife of Bath is the opposite of the Nun loud and modern, not what a woman should be by their standards. Chaucer’s states, “There was a good WIFE OF beside BATH, /But she was somewhat deaf, and that was a pity. / Her kerchiefs were very fine in texture; /… Her stockings were of fine scarlet red, / Very closely laced, and shoes very supple and new. / She was a worthy woman all her life:/ She had (married) five husbands at the church door, /She knew, as it happened, about remedies for love / For she knew the old dance (tricks of the trade) of that art./ (Chaucer lines 445-476). Chaucer again eludes that she knows how to perform an abortion, “She knew about remedies for love” giving her rank as experienced and her behaviorism give air to a woman who can do what she pleases even though she had five husbands which was abnormal for the time…

    • 1736 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the journey of Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer paints a vivid image of the medieval world. He brings forth three prominent concepts in the General Prologue, Pardoner's Prologue and Tale, and The Wife of Bath’s Tale. All tales satirically drenched with persuasive ideas, most would agree that his iconoclastic stories are dangerous for introducing aloud a different view on the church, gender relations and economic divisions. Creating doubt against the morals and true intentions of the church, bringing to light the inequality between genders and proposing a division between economic classes.…

    • 794 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Primarily, the “Wife of Bath’s Tale” reveals that one should have sovereignty over her significant other. The Wife of Bath conspicuously states her…

    • 1296 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    The wife of bath is a very confident woman who, in the prologue of her tale, talks about her five husbands. She seems very satisfied with her life and her choices; she is fulfilled regardless of the men she was married to. Even with all their deaths, she remains happy and independent. “But even now I will strive to be merry.” (Lines 478-479) The story she tells is about a knight who, after he rapes a young girl, is forced by the queen to find out what women desire the most. He finally discovers that what women want the most is to have sovereignty over their husbands. This goes directly along with the character of the wife of bath, who loved the control she had over her husbands more than anything else. The story proves that the answer to what women want the most is not just one static statement. What a person desires most in life depends on their own character and their own…

    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the Wife of Bath’s prologue, she details her past and former five husbands. She did not wed any but one for love, and that they had all passed away. The first three were “good”; they were submissive older men.…

    • 821 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Wife of Bath is full of herself, she likes to be the first woman in church to give donations, but if someone was to give before her she would rather keep her money then be second. She made pilgrimages like this one to Canterbury to find men, she…

    • 583 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Wife of Bath

    • 1467 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In her prologue, the Wife of Bath told the story of her troubled marital life. Married five times, she can’t comprehend why Christ would reject her. She’d rather take the quote from the bible, “to increase and multiply,” though she has no children. She continues on about her first three husbands, all of whom were wealthy and old. She states that she enjoys having complete control over them and having an upper hand in the marriage. The Wife’s fourth husband had a mistress, which bothered her that he took pleasure in other woman even when she was full of youth.…

    • 1467 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Envy, the desire to have a quality, possession, or other desirable attribute belonging to someone else. The character The Wife of Bath always wants more she has had 5 husbands and her clothing has to be the up most precise material and class. Being in the best clothing was high on her priority list because she made clothes herself in the text it says “Her kerchiefs were of finely woven ground…sworn they weighed a good ten pounds” The Wife of Bath was so absorbed in herself, her vanity and her obsession of becoming more prestigious by marrying other men.…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics