The Canterbury Tales: Wife Of Bath

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Term Paper Title	The Canterbury Tales: Wife Of Bath
# of Words	819
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	3.28

The Canterbury Tales: Wife of Bath

The Canterbury Tales: Wife of Bath

In the Hollywood blockbuster Basic Instinct, Sharon Stone plays a devious,
manipulative, sex-driven woman who gets whatever she wants through her ploys for
control. Stone's portrayal of this character is unforgettable and makes the
movie.  In book or film, the most memorable female characters are those who
break out of the stereotypical “good wife” mold.  When an author or actress uses
this technique effectively, the woman often carries the story.  In Geoffrey
Chaucer's Canterbury Tales,  he portrays the Wife of Bath, Alison, as a woman
who bucks the tradition of her times with her brashness and desire for control
to present a woman's point of view and to evoke some sympathy for her.

In the author's time, much of the literature was devoted to validating the
frailties of women.  However, in this story, the Wife is a woman who has
outlived four of five husbands for “of five housbodes scoleying” (P50) is she.
She holds not her tongue, and says exactly what she thinks, even if she
contradicts others, even Jesus.  For in the Bible it states that Jesus “Spak in
repreve of the Samaritan:/‘Thou hast yhad five housbondes,' quod he,/‘And that
ilke man that now hath thee/Is nat thyn housbonde'” (P16).  Despite this quote
from the holy writ, the Wife states that ther are no other arguments “Eek wel I
woot he [Jesus] saide that myn housbonde/Sholde lete fader and moder and take
me,/But of no nombre mencion made he [Jesus]--/Of bigamye or of octagamye” (P30).
She maintains her position and dismisses the one contention in the Bible by
stating in relation to the above quote “Wat that he mente therby [she] can nat
sayn,/But that I axe why the fifthe man/Was noon housbonde to the Samaritan?/How
manye mighte she han in mariage?/Yit herde I nevere tellen in myn age/Upon this
nombre diffinicioun” (P20).  A true account of her brashness is when she states
that sex organs are for pleasure as well as function.  She states that “In
wifhood wol I use myn instrument/As freely as my Makere hath it sent” (P155).
She displays her ruthless side when she makes her cheating husband, the fourth,
think that she is cheating and revels in this victory by saying “in his own
greece I made him frye” (P493).  It is obvious that the Wife of Bath is no
submissive woman who thinks what she is told to think.  She ...

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