Saturday, August 3, 2019
Authorial Opinion Of Wife Of Bath Essay -- essays research papers
The character of the Wife of Bath is clearly feminist. She indicates this by her extreme ideas of female ââ¬Å"maistryeâ⬠and statements such as ââ¬Å"I have the power duringe al my lyf upon his proper body, and nought he,â⬠which is extremely feminist. However, Chaucer makes us see the Wife of Bath as inconsistent, at times illogical, and also amoral and adulterous, The prologue and tale is spoken by a woman of supposed vast experience, yet was written by a man. While the prologue and tale may be seemingly feminist, could it be a vehicle for a deeper anti-feminist message? The Wife of Bath had a strong argument in favour of marriage but is easy to fault. Her argument that marriage grows more virgins, while correct makes us wonder why she bore no children. And she also mentions the fact that ââ¬Å"in wyfhood I wol use myn instrumentâ⬠but her marriage did not seem to have stopped her from restraining her ââ¬Å"Chamber of Venus from a good felawe.â⬠The Wife of Bath confuses bigamy with remarriage and manipulates the arguments for remarriage to suit her purpose. Chaucer gives the Wife of Bathââ¬â¢s arguments less credibility The wife of bath strongly argued in favour of female ââ¬Å"maistrye.â⬠She argued this in the prologue and used the tale to bring the message home. Her arguments are weakened however by the destructive and careless behaviour of the Wife of Bath. She openly laughs at them (ââ¬Å"I laugh whan I thinkeâ⬠) when she thinks of how she made her husbands toil at night. She doesnââ¬â¢t seem to regret the...
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