Canterbury Tales Essay - Marriage and the Role of Women in the Wife of

Marriage and the Role of Women in the Wife of Baths Prologue The Canterbury Tales, begun in 1387 by Geoffrey Chaucer, are written in heroic couplets iambic pentameters, and consist of a series of twenty-four linked tales told by a group of superbly characterized pilgrims ranging from dub to Plowman. The characters meet at an Inn, in London, before journeying to the shrine of St Thomas a Becket at Canterbury. The Wife of Bath is one of these characters. She bases both her tale and her prologue on marriage and brings humor and intrigue to the tales, as she is lively and very often crudely spoken. Her role as a dominant egg-producing(prenominal) contrasts greatly with the others in the tales, like the prim and proper Prioress represents the argument for virginity, whereas the Wife upholds the state of marriage. Women were very much perceived as second-class citizens in the Fourteenth Century, they were seldom educated and had little status in society. In contrast, the two female char acters in the book are from areas of society where it was possible for women to have influence in all likelihood as these characters would hold more interest for his readership. The prioress was undoubtedly the most powerful person in the nunnery and the Wifes position as a weaver would gain her respect and power although it is implied that she achieves this through other means. Through the Wife Chaucer shows how women achieved authority through marriage, using humor typical of modern mother-in-law comedy. His tongue in cheek approach shows how the Wife controls her husbands, by terrorizing them so that each were ful glad when she spake to hem faire. The reason for the Wifes cruel treatment afterward marriage was that she no longer needed to winne hir love, or do... ...ant in the modern day church. The aspects of marriage portrayed in the Wife of Baths prologue romp heavily around sexual pleasure and wealth. Her description shows the struggle for power causes conflict, occasion al violence and abuse all the while she is justifying her spiritednessstyle and fighting for female equality. Despite no fidelity, love, or trust as deceit and affairs that seem to be commonplace the Wife of Bath s description of conjoin life is very much a comical one, which she does seem to enjoy especially if she achieves fulfillment. Altogether Chaucers portrait of 14th Century married life is at best a humorous battleground for independence, wealth and pleasures of the flesh. Works CitedChaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. The Norton Anthology English Literature. Sixth Edition, vol. 1. Ed. Abrams, M.H. Norton & Company New York, 1993.