Reading Medieval Literature. Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Baths Tale. The Wife of Baths Tale is a fantastical tale of magical creatures such as fairies‚ forests‚ romance‚ strong Knights and fair maidens‚ set in the time of King Arthurs counsel in Britain‚ While the tale is seen as a fairy tale set in an ideal world‚ it touches on dark subjects such as rape and using power for evil. A Knight overcome with lust for a fair maiden uses his power for evil and rapes this lady dishonouring her. Instead
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In the tale “The Wife of Bath‚” the Knight’s punishment fit his crime nicely. The knight’s crime was that he raped a maiden‚ for no other reason than to sate his sexual desires. While the law of that time called for his head‚ instead of executing him‚ King Arthur let the Queen decide what would become of him. King Arthur’s decision to let the Queen take over the Knight’s punishment makes sense because it is an issue that a woman would feel more strongly about than a man. However‚ the Queen takes
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Marriage Tales In the middle ages‚ marriage represented a shift in the balance of power for both men and women. Struggling to define what constitutes the ideal marriage in medieval society‚ the marriage group of Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales attempts to reconcile the ongoing battle for sovereignty between husband and wife. Existing hierarchies restricted women; therefore‚ marriage fittingly presented more obstacles for women. Chaucer creates the dynamic personalities of the Wife of Bath and
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The Wife of Bath is not an admirable woman. Allison is a manipulator‚ picks her husbands based on their looks and money‚ and possibly murdered husband number four. An admirable woman is one who respects‚ not only herself‚ but her husband‚ too. Also‚ one must love their mate with a love that can never be denied. In the story‚ Allison shows characteristics of being a manipulator. She waits for her mate to get drunk and falsely accuses him of cheating the next morning‚ knowing that everything is a
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READ THE PROLOGUE “THE WIFE OF BATH” AND ANSWER THE QUESTIONS SUPPORTING THEM WITH THE TEXTS. 1-Choose two biblical examples from the text in the Prologue and examine how the Wife has used / interpreted / challenged these extracts from the Bible. (2‚ 5) A: People use to criticize the Wife´s marriages‚ because according Bible‚ everybody just could marry once and she had married five times. However‚ there are same extracts from the Bible that the Wife use in her favour and with it‚ she makes
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Wife of Bath’s Tale and Wife of Bath’s Prologue When studying the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Wife of Bath’s Tale‚ both coming from the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer‚ you see a common theme of feminism. Also‚ you get a good sense of the of the anti feminist cultural norms and ideas regarding women in the medieval era. Alisoun‚ The Wife of Bath‚ focuses most upon the common stereotypes of women. These stereotypes include the idea that women only marry into money in order to live a lavish lifestyle
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There are many morals and ethical views from The Canterbury Tales that are still very much applicable to the world today. One such moral that is still valid in today’s world comes from the Wife of Bath’s tale. During her tale a similar moral kept on showing‚ and this was how women desired “sovereignty” over men. From the prologue it was definite that the wife of bath had experience with relation because she was married five times and she‚ out of all the other pilgrims‚ knew what made a women the
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No story in The Canterbury Tales is more alike as the Franklin’s tale and the Wife of Bath’s tale‚ but on a person level they are extremely different. Yet they are both personally alike in some ways‚ and their stories do have some diversity. The Franklin’s tale and the Wife of Bath’s tale are considered folk tales but it can be said that they are courtly romances‚ yet it is a stretch. Each tale has some sort of magician‚ or a supernatural person if you must‚ who will solve the protagonists conflict
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The Wife of Bath’s tale starts off by her explaining that she is experienced with marriage and that the experience was based on the fact that she had five husbands (Chaucer 135). She continues on to express her desires of being all powerful and dominating over her husband and proceeds to tell the tale of the Knight (Chaucer 135). The disturbing story consists of the Knight raping an innocent maiden. The Wife of Bath’s Tale does not demonstrate what a typical woman in the Middle English period should
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A female narrator tells the Wife of Bath’s Tale‚ and it focuses on how women should be of equal power as men. There is the Wife who is equal to the King because they both have multiple spouses. The Wife also has power over all her husbands; making her superior to them. That is surprising considering that in 1300’s men were always superior then women‚ and were never at the same level as them. This tale is used to represent how society should have been in that era‚ women and men are the same‚ both
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