Wife of Bath

Geoffery Chaucer wrote his legendary Canterbury Tales in Medieval times when women were considered as servants to their husbands and powerless. This was a time where church and state were one entity and in the church’s eyes women were supposed to be gentile and and virtuous. Sexuality and education of women was condemned by the church and state. The clothing during that time also represented the ideals of that time. Their skirts were long and ankles were never to be shown naked in public. Young girls were taught that a fulfilled life included marrying a rich and noble man, staying at home taking care of the kids and being in tune with a lifestyle that the church praised. Chaucer wrote his female characters to represent the women he had come into contact with. The virtuous and beautiful women came into play in the Franklin’s and the Physician’s tales. In these tales, the women that are the main characters are kind, beautiful and everything the church thought a woman should be. These women showed their virtuousness by choosing death over being morally stained or losing their family honor. Though Chaucer had these kind of women represented in his stories, he was a radical writer. He criticized the church, Medieval society and other common figures he encountered in his travels. The most radical story that Chaucer has written, as far as women are concerned, is The Wife of Bath’s Tale . The main character in this tale, which is a woman, actually holds the power over her husband. Though Chaucer wrote of the people of his time, his story of a woman holding power is extremely radical during the time that he had written it.

In the Physician’s tale, a knight named Virginius has a beautiful and kind daughter named Virginia. There was a judge named Appius who at all cost wanted to attain the fourteen year old Virginia. He get Claudius, a criminal, to help in his conspiriacy. Claudius goes to court to accuse the knight of stealing a servant girl form him and pretending that she is the knights daughter. The judge rules that the knigth’s daughter is not really his and orders the knight to hand his daughter over to Claudius. When the knight goes home, Virginia is so distrought that she decides to “ die as a madian.” Virginia convinces her father to kill her with his sword. Virginius cuts off his daughters head and and bring it to the court. Appius orders that the knight be put to death for murder. Meanwhile, the townspeople learned of the plot and threw Appius in jail and wants to put Claudius to death. Virginius intercedes hand Claudius is exiled. In this tale the martym of highly dramatized by the judge cutting off his daughter’s head. He would rather shee his daughter dead then handed over to a treacherous man. Honor is something holy and should be kept at all cost. Once it is saved all those who tried to take a family’s honor are dealt with harshly.

In the second tale The Fanklin’s tale, a knight Averages wants to make his life complete by marring a pious wife. He choses Dorigen, a patient woman, to make his wife. Soon after they are married the knight has to travel to make a living. While he is gone Dorigen becomes extremely sad. Her neighbor tries to convince Dorigen to go to parties but she refuses. One day she accepts an invatation to go to a picnic. There she meets a wealthy man, Arelius, who tells her that he will do anything to attain her. Jokingly she promises that if he removes all the rocks from the coast, she will marry him. He goes into a deep depression. His bother agrees to pay a magician to remove all the rocks from the coast. Meanehile, Averages returnes home and everything is right again. The rocks are removed from the coast and Arelius tells Dorigen that she must keep her pomise. She tells her husband and wants to kill herself. The knight says that she must keep her promise. She does as her husband says. Arelius releases her from her promise once he sees her sorrow. But he cannot pay the fee to the magician. Once the magician learns of Arelius deed, he releases him from their agreement. In this tale, the noble knight agrees to give up his wife just to keep a promise. Even though Dorigen wants to kill herself, again the martyr, Averages makes her keep her word and honor. In this story, all characters are rewarded for showing compassion to each other. There is no conspiracy to take away the honor of one’sfamily therefore all are rewarded in the end.

The prologue begins with the Wife of Bath telling how she had already married five men and welcomed a sixth. This is a stark contrast to the Church’s belief of how women should act. She continues on that she does however follow the church’s guidelines on being “fruitful and multiplying”. She also says that Jesus never gave one a cap on how many people a person can marry whether it be two or eight so why should men look down upon her for marrying five. She goes on to retell the story of King Solomon