The Wyfe Of Bath And Feminism Essay
, Research Paper
The Wyfe of Bath represents adult female as a reasonably, healthy, rounded
personage. She is a kind of Dr. Ruth, in that she knows love & # 8217 ; s problems and is
willing to assist out troubled psyches. The Wyfe of Bath is the Nun & # 8217 ; s foil, in that
she knows what she is and doesn & # 8217 ; t seek to cover up and quash her
gender. She & # 8220 ; lets it all hang out & # 8221 ; and revels in her gender.
Chaucer uses the Wyfe of Bath to belie the dehumanising position of
the adult females of his clip. Womans used to be put on a base and
admired, they were non to be touched and non to be soiled in any manner. If
adult females were virgins their whole lives they were admired, exalted,
canonized and worshipped. Women would go sufferer for the
protection of their & # 8220 ; honor. & # 8221 ; Odes were made in the name of adult females, and
Courtly Love was the new craze. In Courtly Love, a adult male would sing, compose,
and make everything in the name of a adult female ( sooner a married one )
except bed her. One was NEVER to bed the adult female one loved, kept womans
fulfilled that intent. I have no thought how adult females felt about this, but it & # 8217 ; s
possible they were non at all pleased ; who in their right head would bask
non acquiring to kip with a fine-looking adult male who loved you? And they say
adult females are a annoyer.
The Wyfe of Bath, on the other manus, is non quashing anything. She is
non dowdy, beautiful, prim, priggish, or anyone & # 8217 ; s retainer. She makes no
attempt at concealing her sexual yesteryear, particularly with work forces half her age, in fact
she talks about it at length. She loves tumbles in the hay, and has been
married five times- piece actively looking for the 6th. She claims to hold
loved three of her hubbies but explained for pages how she would state
the hubbies she hated how bad they were. She was decidedly the
dominant married woman. She pretended to be dead so her 5th hubby would experience
bad and do as she willed. The Wyfe of Bath knew what she wanted, how
to acquire it, and frequently she did.
Physically, the Wyfe of Bath was a healthy, big adult female. Her vermilion
stockings seem to demo she is animal, and possibly a spot of a Rebel. Red
socks would decidedly lodge out in a company of nuns and priests. Her
wide chapeau and wimple prove that she does cognize how to dress and is no
streetwalker in public, unlike Madame Eglantyne who strategically places her
head covering to do her expression better. She has a handsome ruddy face and is gap-
toothed- traditionally thought of as significance she has a good sexual
appetency. She besides has big hips- good for bearing kids and transporting
her weight.
The Wyfe of Bath is doing both a feminist base and stand foring some
of society & # 8217 ; s positions of adult females. She is non at all the traditional obedient
adult female. She defies all of her hubbies, but besides has the backbones to state them
their regulations were incorrect in the first topographic point.
& # 8220 ; After your text, and after your rubric
I will non follow more than would a gnat. & # 8221 ;
& # 8220 ; With dames I would bear down him, by this
manus,
When, for some unwellness he could barely
stand. & # 8221 ;
She besides calls her hubbies names like Sir Dottard, and Lord Fool. The Wyfe
of Bath is full aware that she wears the bloomerss in all of her matrimonies. She
is besides really sly ; she had Jankyn lined up as a hubby right after her 4th
one died.
The Wyfe of Bath besides seems to make full a few traditional positions of adult females. She
is chatty, she runs from her responsibilities to state her friend Alison all of the stupid
things her 5th hubby did. Even when he hit her for it & # 8211 ; and she went
deaf from it- she still told all of her friends. This quality is frequently seen in
the
traditional homemaker character of today & # 8217 ; s situation comedies. She is insurgent to her
hubbies ; though she is dominant, she frequently does things behind their
dorsums, and I & # 8217 ; m sure this gets her into gluey state of affairss. She seems to be a
spot like Lucy Ricardo in that facet. The Wfye of Bath besides slept around- a
traditional & # 8220 ; slutty woman. & # 8221 ; Often when a adult female is known to bask sex
she is thought less of, specialness true in the Middle Ages, when virginity
was the best thing a adult female could possess. This is the ultimate two-base hit
criterion. The Wyfe of Bath fundamentally says, & # 8220 ; If all of the adult females are virgins,
who & # 8217 ; s left to give birth to more virgins? & # 8221 ; The Oxford Cleric decidedly had
jobs with this absolutely healthy activity, he told a narrative about how
adult females are happiest when dominated. The Wyfe of Bath besides had a
covetous run a stat mi long. She was proud of the fabric she made, and it
HAD to be on the church communion table. If she wasn & # 8217 ; t first in line for everything she
had a tantrum, besides a really traditional position of adult females.
All in all, the Wyfe of Bath is a magnetic character ; the reader is pulled
into her universe. What other mediaeval adult female is improbably proud of her
sordid past? How many other adult females in the fourteenth century traveled every bit much
as she did? She is learned ( slightly ) and yet still sticks to her personal
experiences for learning. Her power and ability to be happy with all of
the other drab people of the party demands regard.
