Scarica The Wife of Bath: A Defiant Woman in Chaucer's 'The Canterbury Tales' e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! WRITING In Chaucer’s “The Canterbury Tales”, how does the character of the Wife of Bath compare to what was expected of a woman in the Middle Ages? Is the narrator sympathetic to her or critical of her? Justify your answer with reference to the text. The Wife of Bath is a character that particularly stands out if compared with what was usually expected from a woman in the Middle Ages. She was independent and did not submit to her husbands, but instead had a successful career and had multiple lovers (as stated in lines 4-5 and in lines 16-17 of the General Prologue), showing this way her emancipation and her carefree personality. In the General Prologue Chaucer describes the Wife as a woman who’s fond of travelling (as said from line 19 to line 22) and enjoys conversation (as said in line 30), pointing again to her will of spending her life as best as she pleases; Chaucer even talks about her as aggressive and easily angered (as revealed in line 7), going against the Medieval idea of women as fragile and weak. In The Wife of Bath’s Prologue we understand she did not feel ashamed of revealing her lust as she freely talks about her sexual life with her past lovers (expressed from line 7 to line 10), yet it is also stated that she did not care about their love, but only about the land and property she inherited after their death (a sentiment which is given out from line 11 to line 16); this could represent her materialistic nature alongside a sort of dependence from men, she surely does not base her existence on her husbands, however, she still needs a marriage to survive and pleases men’s desires in order to get what she wants. The most revolutionary aspect of the Wife’s character is presented in her tale: here, we can clearly see the widow’s philosophy, in fact, in the ending the knight submits to an old and ugly lady and when asked if he would rather be with an ugly and faithful woman or with a beautiful and unfaithful one, he answers that that it is up to her to choose; this enforces her idea that women had to be independent and dominant, a very innovative and progressive concept at the time. For some aspects though, the Wife of Bath is still a reflection of the Medieval woman; in the General Prologue Chaucer's describes her as a very religious person, even though it was not genuine faith (as stated from line 5 to line 8), in fact it is said she liked going on pilgrimages in order to have fun and meet new people (as pointed in line 30). Chaucer does not show any particular opinion when talking about the Wife of Bath, even the irony she is described with is an obvious narrative device used to make her stand out as a character and build a kind of caricature in order to entertain the readers; nonetheless, I'm of the opinion that the author, shows, even if rarely, a critical approach to his character or at least sees women like her with a Medieval mentality, for example when he mentions the colour of her clothes and face in lines from 12 to 14, or the gap between her teeth in line 24, pointing at her promiscuous nature; on the other hand, this is merely my personal view and the feeling I got as a person from the current day, considering it is hard for us to wrap our head around the idea of a Medieval man supporting women's equality.
