Geoffrey Chaucer’s the Wife of Bath Essay

The wife of bathrooms Prologue and Tale look for galore(postnominal) aspects of patriarchate and sometimes reveal surprising attitudes within the news report and prologue. Discuss.Geoffrey Chaucers the wife of can is a text which is interwoven with references to patriarchy and unanticipated attitudes towards the social backdrop in which it was created.Written in a period where males dominated the hierarchy, Chaucer through the married woman portrays the reversal of traditional roles, and a sensory faculty of rebellion and womens rightistic instincts which at the time appeargond extraordinary His poetic sensibility, feature with an immense understanding more or less men and women, enabled him to survey the livelihood about him with such imaginative insight and power. (Bennet 74) Throughout the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer speaks with remarkable authority on a huge range of subjects. This is perhaps do possible by the assortment of reference works from wholly areas of so ciety which travel on the pilgrimage.Alisouns character is perhaps best encapsulated in the manner of her entrance to the Tales. Clothed in the finest garments, her hosen weven of fyn scarlet need, well-travelled and carteyn so wroth, the Wife Strides into the Canterbury Tales on a large horse, spurs jangling, and realisey to assert herself in a company made up almost entirely of men She is a medieval lady of the house who is not just red ink to star in a story, she is going to tell it. (Reading the Wifes Prologue and Tale) A far cry from the tame and submissive maidens so often represent in classic books and fables prior to this the Wife is independent, liberated and outspoken.The Wifes relationship to the men in her life is often one of total domination and manipulation. She enjoys maistyre over her male counterparts Unne the mught they the statut holdeIn which that they were bounden un to meYe woot wel what I mean of this, pardeeAs help me God, I laughe whan I thynkeHow pite ously a- nyght I made hem swynke.The Wife governs many aspects of her saves lives, and rules with spare sovereignty in the bedroom. Her sexual powers are and obvious source of conquering and assure over her lovers.Very much a humanistic text, the Canterbury Tales ceaselessly remind the reader of the complexity of the human character. One example of this could be the Knight, the embodiment of chivalrye, Trouthe and honour, freedom and curteisye in the hierarchy of society at the time. At prototypic he appears to fit the specification perfectly. The unless subtle loss motion which slightly removes the Knight from this brave and righteous tradition is left(a) with us when he is described as meke as a mayde.Chaucer still the depth of personality in each individual, and that a stereotype is neer applicable. His characters almost always only very nearly fit the stereotype, and fall in us scope to remain unconvinced about the rest. This refusal to comply with what many would de scribe as the one dimensional and traditional Fairytale characters allows for the issues of patriarchy to be discusses liberally.Interestingly, even at points of text which reflect a relaxed and informal tone, the Wife constantly feels the requirement to reemphasise and argue her point with references to astrology and scriptural references. These biblical references however are often contorted to suit the Wifes requirement in the argument. For example the term from Genesis 122,28Go forth and multiply is used as an excuse for the remarriage of the wife. This control and knowledge of the Churchs text represent a fail to Patriarchal structures at many levels. The male governed Church, with its male oriented texts and thought systems for the Wife especially represent the oppression of men. For Alisoun the structures of literature, religion and authority are connected in that they represent male dominance.The Wife of Bath however cannot be totally classified as a pro feminist characte r. At many levels her dishonest, manipulative nature reinforces the common negative conceptions of anti- womens lib at the time. Hansen (cited in Beidler) claims that this anti-feminist discourse mentioned above is less of a harvest-feast of archness towards patriarchal literature. Instead she is trapped in a prison house of anti-feminist discourse.She is unable to see that her tactics solely reinforce all the stereotypical Medival ideas about women as cruel, emotional, and sexually voracious. Chaucer at that placefore is seen as reinforcing antifeminist views or else than undermining them. Alisoun bequeaths a vessal through which thousands of years of antifeminist literature are regurgitated with a revise purpose and tone of archness. One example of this method comes in Alisouns first words to the group, a repeat of earlier rhetoric (Awkroyd) Expeience, though no autoritee,Were in this world, is right ynogh for meTo speak of woe that is in marriage. barb Awkroyd (2005) believ es that Chaucer uses much of the antifeminist literature of the period but, by placing it in the Wifes capacious mouth, he lends it a new and ironic lease of life.The Wifes five marriages on the outset portray a sense of calculated systematic marrying for the advancement of wealth and power. However, it could be argued that Alison was more than simply a ruthless professional. There are arguments that the fourth, and especially the fifth economize Jenkin, captured her love and stood in more than equal stead with their spouse That al myn herte I yaf unto his hold/ He was, I trowe, a twenty overwinter oold, and I was fourty. Although the true love described by Chaucer at first appears conformal to the description of traditional literature, as often the case in the Tales, there is a cause for disease.In this case the context in which the act begins, the burial ceremony of save number four, Alisoun covets the younger page boy and her future husband. In Jankin, Alisoun finds a man to which she is willing to submit. Cruel, abusive, manipulative this husband domineers the relationship, physically, emotionally and sexually. At this stage the once immovable opposition to patriarchy admits that he partner so well koude he me glose.Furthermore the Wife admits that it is this form of denial and subornation in a relationship which causes women to crave what they cannot have wait whatcrave The dictatorship of Jenkin is further developed by Minnis, who claims Jenkin read aloud to her (translating from his anthology of antifeminist texts It could be said then that she has learned at home, from her husband how acquiescent and submissive can one get? (Minnis 249)The Wife of Baths Tale and Prologue, as a text which attempts to examine Patriarchy, the attitudes portrayed are purposely less definable. Often categorised as every a feminist or anti- feminist text, The Wife of Bath is a complex mixture between the two. Chaucer, as always does not provide specific or obvious att itudes to these hierarchies and relationships. Instead, like his characters he provides us with an perceptive cross- section of the Patriarchal society in which he existed.Reference be givenAwkroyd, Peter. The Tales of Canterbury. Chaucer. London Vintage, 2005. 150 53. Beidler, Peter G. Geoffrey Chaucer The Wife of Bath. New York Bedford Books, 1996. Bennet, H.S. Chaucer. Oxford History of position Literature Chaucer and the Fifteenth Century. Ed. F.P Wilson and Bonamy Dobre. London Oxford, 1947. 74 75. Minnis, Alastair. Chapter 4 Gender as Fallibility. Fallible Authors Chaucers Pardonerand Wife of Bath. Philadelphia University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008. 249. Reading the Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale. York Notes Advanced The Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale. London Longman, 1998. 3 10.