Chaucer's The Wife Of Bath
In the varied group of pilgrims assembled by Chaucer, the Wife of Bath most simply represents a woman of the time. Unlike the Prioress and her nun companion, who are the only other women on the pilgrimage and who represent other things, her sole purpose is to just be a woman. Chaucer says of her, "Of cloth-making hadde swich an haunt, She passed hem of Ypres and of Gaunt, In al the parissh wif ne was ther noon, That to the offring bifore heir sholde goon."(Chaucer, pp. 310) This passage described her as being a good cloth making-woman who gives an abundance of gifts to the church. She does not represent women as the typical weak gender but she is a medieval woman at her most eloquent and her most basic (Jones, pp. 1). The Wife of Bath is essentially a conformist and though her behavior at times may seem out of hand, her needs are really quite normal. Put simply, she likes men and does not like sleeping alone. She tries hard to fulfill these needs but as far as Chaucer tells she had remained faithful to each of her five former husbands when they were alive. She flirts and is familiar with men but she nowhere does she actually advocate sex outside marriage. Her prologue starts by boasting of her experience of men, "Experienc
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Wife Bath, Canterbury Tales, Ypres Gaunt, Wife Bath's, Sundays Red, Unlike Prioress, wife bath, , chaucer wife, commonly associated, wife describes, five former, 1 chaucer, scarlet red, former pilgrimages, pp 1, red color,
Approximate Word count = 1008
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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