Authorial Opinion Of Wife Of Bath Essay -- essays research papers

The character of the Wife of Bath is clearly feminist. She indicates this by her extreme ideas of female maistrye and statements such as I have the power duringe al my lyf upon his proper body, and nought he, which is extremely feminist. However, Chaucer makes us see the Wife of Bath as inconsistent, at times illogical, and also amoral and adulterous, The prologue and tale is spoken by a woman of supposed vast experience, yet was written by a man. While the prologue and tale may be seemingly feminist, could it be a fomite for a deeper anti-feminist message? The Wife of Bath had a strong argument in favour of hymeneals but is easy to fault. Her argument that marriage grows more virgins, while correct makes us wonder why she bore no children. And she also mentions the fact that in wyfhood I wol use myn instrument but her marriage did not seem to have stopped her from restraining her Chamber of Venus from a good felawe. The Wife of Bath confuses bigamy with remarriage and manipulate s the arguments for remarriage to suit her purpose. Chaucer gives the Wife of Baths arguments slight credibilityThe wife of bath strongly argued in favour of female maistrye. She argued this in the prologue and used the tale to bring the message home. Her arguments are weakened withal by the destructive and careless behaviour of the Wife of Bath. She openly laughs at them (I laugh whan I thinke) when she thinks of how she made her husbands toil at night. She doesnt seem to regret the...