Women In The Canterbury Tales

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In the book Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, a late-fourteenth-century English poet, who seems to write with more feminist views than most other 14th century authors, switches the stereotypical roles the men and women play throughout his book. While reading this book I found 2 characters that intrigued me the most. Alisoun, is a young sexy woman who was married to the John the carpenter. Also,the other character was the wife of bath, a woman who has a lot of experience under her belt being married 5 times and traveling most of the world. These 2 characters showed us just how much power and respect Chaucer gave women in the book.
Alisoun is portrayed throughout the tale as a bright and sweet person who dresses nicely. She is put in a …show more content…
She has lived with 5 husbands and traveled all over the world. She has a lot of experience in love and in sex. The wife of bath is one of two storytellers in the book, which is showing us another example of how Chaucer favored the woman more then men throughout each tale. She is described in great detail as a rich, adventurous woman, whose clothing is very expensive and pretty. Again Chaucer is making her powerful and wealthy. Throughout all of her experiences with her husbands, she learned how to provide for herself in a very tough world for women. The wife of bath was so successful with these men because she knew how to persuade them in a sexual manner. She uses her body as a tool, by withholding what the men want until she gets what she wants. Her first three husbands were not given a name throughout the prologue and tale. Chaucer made them very rich, but not so smart. Her fourth husband she loved very much and he was also not given a name. She ended up cheating on him with her fifth husband, Jankyn. He was a 20-year-old student who she was truly in love with. The reason she had so many husbands was because she desired sex and love. She was never happy with just one man she always wanted more. She was a beautiful young woman with a lot of money from all of her husbands and was just trying to have fun in
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