wife of bath?

Question

a good response please. how much is the wife of bath tale reflected to her prologue. Does is seem like she would tell this kind of story??

Answer 1

The Wife of Bath is more than an instrument of satire, more than just a voice that turns upside down the antifeminist traditions of her time. She is more than an "iconograph figure showing the manifold implications of an attitude"; she has the complexity of a living person. She comes onto the scene during a period in European history when marriage itself is seen as inferior to celibacy, and when the husband (in his position analogous to that of king or God) is the dominant figure in marriage. (A contemporary treatise tells us that a husband "may chastise his wife and beat her by way of correction, for she forms part of his household; so that he, the master, may chastise that which is his....")

The Wife is extreme, even at points strident, in her saucy defense of sexuality, marriage, and female supremacy; yet we see a softer side too, in her poignant if momentary reflections on her lost youth and approaching age (ll. 469-475) and in her satisfaction with her last marriage.


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