Canterbury Tales Critical Analysis of the Wife of Bath
Near the turn of the fourteenth century the art of composing romantic poetry entertained the inhabitants of northwestern England. Many highly educated men participated in this art and form of entertainment. Most created tales, termed epics, were also very important to the history of the individual author's nation or race. One of the three great epic poets of this period, Geoffrey Chaucer, fashioned a collection of tales that was both unique and everlasting. This collection of short stories, entitled the Canterbury Tales, was unlike any other epic poem of the time period. Instead of following the traditional format for writing an epic poem, which included writing about several characters of high social standing, Chaucer gave his readers a taste of social variety by involving various characters from a spectrum of social classes. In the Canterbury Tales, this diverse group of characters was individually responsible for narrating two stories while on a pilgrimage that journeyed from Southwark to Canterbury, and two stories while on the return trip from Canterbury to Southwark. Chaucer only finished twenty-two of these narratives before his death in 1400. Still, through the twenty-two stories he did write, he managed to capture the cu
After the wife of Bath finishes her prologue she proceeds to tell her tale. In The Wife of Bath's Tale a knight returning to King Arthur's Court saw a young damsel and raped her. The knight's entire kingdom was disgusted by his action and demanded that justice be served upon the knight. As the knight was brought before King Arthur the queen begged to judge the knight's actions. King Arthur grant's the queen's request. She then explain's to the knight that his sentence would depend on how accurately he could answer the question: "What is the thing that woman most desire?" The knight was given one year to return a correct answer to the queen. After questioning all of the woman in the entire countryside he could not decided on one single correct answer, until he met an old lady with magical powers. She told the knight that women most desire sovereignty over their partners. The knight relayed this answer to the queen and was set free after none of the woman of King Arthur's Court could disagree. The story ends with the knight marrying the old lady because he promised her anything for providing a correct answer for the queen (Chaucer 135-144). This idea, of woman attaining sovereignty over their spouses, that the wife of Bath portrays in her tale was unheard of during this age. Men often dominated their spouses during the medieval period. Women had very little, if any, rights in most social classes. Woman were obligated to do whatever their spouse requested, and were to do so without any argument. With this in mind, one should realize that the wife of Bath continues to vocalize ideas that go "against the grain" of her time period in her tale. The wife of Bath touches on this idea of sovereignty in her prologue, but does not emphasize the matter as she does in her tale. Because of the emphasis on sovereignty in her narrative, The Wife o
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Approximate Word count = 1243
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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