Chaucer Essay

Submitted By Mrf9292
Words: 604
Pages: 3

In the Canterbury Tales, the wife of bath is described as a person whom is very power hungry over the marriage between the male and female. She is brought to bring attention to the marriage side from a female and male’s point of view. She believes that women should have a say so in the marriage and not let the guy always have control over a women. This becomes a long journey for the wife of bath and it explains why she did the things she did. The wife of bath is both positive and negative when it comes to marriage. The reason is because she is trying to show a positive image on women whom are stuck in marriages that are unhappy and with husbands who are too bossy. For example, when Arthur is set on a journey her tale she was trying to tell the pilgrims that women are prone to obey a husbands needs whenever he wanted. That's when Arthur ends up meeting and ugly lady who later on turns into a beautiful women. That's where the moral of her tale comes into place when she states "true beauty lies within." (Chauncer) This is very important in her tale because in the end when the ugly lady turns beautiful, he then changes his perspective on the lady. This is a point when the wife of bath makes when she makes of example of how women can turn the bad into good. That's how her positive image comes into play in her tales. Although the wife of bath tends to have a negative side to the Canterbury tales because of the way she tends to manipulate her husbands. She had 5 husbands total in which she states that three husbands were good and the other two were considered to be bad. In her prologue she begins to explain about her husbands and why she fell in love with each one. When she does manipulate men to gain power of marriage she does it in a foolish way that tends to get men to do whatever she pleases. When it comes to the wife of bath being a positive or negative figure, she leans more to the negative side because of her mistreating the men just to get power.

In the wife of bath's prologue, she tells the pardoner that he needs