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

Marriage and the Role of Women in the wife of bathrooms Prologue The Canterbury Tales, begun in 1387 by Geoffrey Chaucer, are written in rarefied couplets iambic pentameters, and consist of a series of twenty-four linked tales told by a group of superbly characterized pilgrims ranging from Knight 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 imagination and intrigue to the tales, as she is lively and very(prenominal) often crudely spoken. Her theatrical role as a dominant effeminate contrasts greatly with the others in the tales, same 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. I n contrast, the two female characters in the book are from areas of society where it was possible for women to have ascertain probably as these characters would hold more interest for his readership. The prioress was doubtlessly the most powerful person in the nunnery and the Wifes post as a weaver would gain her respect and power although it is implied that she achieves this through and 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 after marriage was that she no longitudinal needed to winne hir love, or do... ...ant in the modern day church. The aspects of marriage pictured in the Wife of Baths prologue feature heavily well-nigh sexual pleasure and riches. Her description shows the strugg le for power causes conflict, occasional abandon and abuse all the while she is justifying her lifestyle and fighting for female equality. in spite of no fidelity, love, or trust as deceit and affairs that appear to be commonplace the Wife of Bath s description of get married life is very much a comical one, which she does seem to eff 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.