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The Feminist Point Of View For Wife Of Bath
In the Prologue section of “The Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath” by Geoffrey Chaucer, The Wife of Bath paints a complicated picture of a medieval woman to the readers. As it explains how the Wife of Bath is not ashamed of her sexual exploits since she makes use of her sexual power to get what she wishes. In other words, it is a way of doing exactly these matters does she confirm the horrible stereotypes about women by proving that women are both deceitful and manipulative. Even though, her movements may have first appeared to be a rebellion against the male-dominated side of society in “The Canterbury Tales”, there’s a small number of things that she does that are besides a doubt of revolutionary or empowering for the female society of her time.
Based on her introduction in the tale, it appears that the Wife of Bath truly makes use of her sexual attributes for non-public reap alternatively trying to exhibit her equal status in society. In general, this woman stereotype is supposed to be considered as a parody of sorts on account that she embodies a range of terrible girl features together with stubbornness, deceitfulness, and lewdness. It appears in the prologue to the Wife of Bath’s tale, Chaucer desires his readers to chortle at this persona as a choice on whether their not the readers want to admire her for her pro-feminist stances on existence and marriage. Even if the Wife of Bath is a persona that is intended to shatter a misogynistic stereotype of women in their society, one might think about what would have happened if an interaction of a knowledgeable conversation about how the Wife of Bath viewed things to be with some of the members of her party would have gone and what would have been done about it. However, the closest she came to this is by providing her alternate perception of the Bible, as she states in the tale of The Wife of Bath, “Tell me, also, why do we have organs of reproduction, and why were we created as we are… I say that these organs are for business and the pleasure of conception… ” ( Chaucer 155). While it can be placed in the Bible that people want to procreate, it is well worth noting that she prefaces this declaration with a few phrases about how she interprets the Bible.
With the major intention to analyze from the feminist standpoint, the personality questions and deconstructs the grand narratives of medieval times. As she also compares herself to men who are viewed as most splendid in their society. Even when she defends herself, she appears to be living on occasions an antifeministic lifestyle as she has all the characteristics that a lady now in today’s society has and not by the accordance of a lady in her society. On the other hand, though, the outspoken female tries to justify her existence with her speeches that were ahead of their time as she questions the frequently happening instructing of the church and the society. While the Wife of Bath ignores the authority, she defends her rights and she even deconstructs the Christian doctrine as well. In her prologue and tale, she is shown as being successful at triumphing over discourses and portrays herself as a dominant figure in the society that she lived in.
The Wife of Bath is claiming that she is successful in doing things her way. Still, the hassle with this is that she is not proving anything about her intelligence, she is merely trying to verify or justify her free behavior with the phrase of God. More important than this, in her prologue, the Wife of Bath uses Chaucer by trying to exist herself as a female not capable of independent ideas and activities because she is simply using the Bible, as text related to the male authority, to back up her assertions. In other words, to express in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue inside the “Canterbury Tales”, she is clearly working within the patriarchy in an alternate way instead of outside of it, which only confirms the poor stereotypes about women, especially since some of the insights she gives are sometimes twisted, misunderstood, or honestly wrong. For instance, at one point she talks about the Bible again, saying, “I was certain that Christ attended only one wedding… taught me by example to be married once…Men can interpret and gloss the text up and down but I know…God expressly told us to increase and multiply” ( Chaucer 153), she is absolutely justifying bad conduct with the Bible and her botched misinterpretations of it and this makes her appear silly alternatively than educated. It confirms the stereotype of women in medieval instances that women are not as capable at grasp the deep meanings and mysteries of the Bible and that if they are given some schooling about it, they would solely use it to justify the lewd or sinful conduct.
Overall, the Wife of Bath stood for women in a way where they took control of their body on whether or not they decide if they are a virgin or not. As she clearly believed that she was in charge of her body and mind from any of the men that have crossed her way. She didn’t have to prove anything to anyone since all she had was the Bible to try and justify what she was doing. The Wife of Bath stood up for women during her time in ways that they probably didn’t even notice even if they had thought it was strange by not following the rules. Even though some of her ideas weren’t always right, she still tried her best in being her own person even if it defied the societal standards of a woman.
