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
Chaucer continues on to say that she makes it a point to be the first to give an offering in church and that she often gives generously. By being first, the wife makes sure that everybody sees her giving that large amounts of money. If she was last to give, then people may have already left or had not been paying attention to her donation. Because she donates a lot each time it implies that she may feel guilty for something or that she has sinned terribly and is now trying to buy her forgiveness. By giving all this money to the church, God may overlook her wrong doings. The first part of the Wife of Bath's tale is supposed to convey her message and her views on marriage and sexual morality and at a point move to a level of teaching. These views are somewhat surprisingly in accordance to the common thoughts on the subject in Chaucer's time. She also supports her arguments with references to respected sources like the Bible, and folk-commonsense presented in the form of proverbs and axioms (Cigman, pp. 210). Chaucer says that the wife has been to the church doors, or married, five times. The act of several marriages of a woman was looked down upon in the time of The Canterbury Tales but was an accomplishment for any man. She is also said to have been in five former pilgrimages. This could imply that she feels guilty about her formers husbands. Each man died before she married another. The former pilgrimages could have been her way to repent the deaths and receive forgivene
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1008
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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