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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A paper which investigates issues of female control and domination in The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, with specific reference to the wife's views on economic independence, sexuality, and the role of men and women in marriage. Bibliography lists 3 sources.
Page Count:
5 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JL5_JLwfbth.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
the wealth and diversity of critical material about her. However, despite the liveliness and credibility which Chaucer injects into his portrayal of his characters, we have to bear in mind
that they are not intended to be "ordinary people". They are, to some extent, stereotypes or at least representative of particular cultural groups, and reflect the social culture of Chaucers
day, not of our own. The Wife of Baths tale, for instance, is one which we might well regard as an expression of feminist
views, but feminism as a political movement did not exist in Chaucers time. If we analyse the Wifes perspective on relationships, marriage, sexuality, and gender roles, we have to do
so from a medieval standpoint: what seems unthinkable to us might well have been perfectly acceptable to a woman of Chaucers time, and vice versa.
The Prologue to the Wifes tale describes the Wife of Baths own life, and is a critique of the churchs view of marriage, women and sexuality. For instance Caruthers
(1979) points out that much of the Wifes complaints about marriage, and male-female relationships in general, concern the phenomenon of "history written by the winners": the lion in the fable
looks at the picture of a man killing a lion, and says that if the lion had painted the picture, it would have been the other way round.
She then goes on to consider the relationship between experience and authority, saying that if women told tales of "marital woe" with the same level of
authority as is granted to men, then the men would have their "wikkednesse" exposed. Caruthers also makes the point that although critics have asserted that the Wife is trying to
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