The Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale - Research Paper Example

 The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale Introduction Canterbury Tales: Wife Bath’s Prologue and tale is written somewhere in1390 and commonly considered to be one of his works during his creative years. It looks like impossible to recognize if the writer has decided to pattern the Wife’s thought and feelings toward marriage and sex in the way as it was mentioned in the General Prologue. Antifeminism is the key word or the key term for the Wife of Bath interpretation in the modern time. The biggest question there could ever be in the mind of the reader regarding the Wife of Bath’s tale is up to what extent women will experience rejection and how far could she tolerate anti feminist attitudes. Is there any way women could encourage feminist group of political and social equality of the sexes? Prologue to the Wife of Bath's Tale The Wife of Bath has a powerful presentation in the Canterbury Tales. There is no works in the medieval period like the Wife of Bath that makes it exceptional. Some scholars have even compared it to confessions and sermons but never this was proved. The writer chose a text that has a powerfully individualized vivid monologue during the time things like this are not existing yet. The choice of tone is very unusual basing on the standard narration tone and voice of the Tales and Prologue wherein there is a clear demand to speak louder. The pattern of Ideas embraced that of the Shakespearean soliloguy. Style in the speaking in the Prologue is not conversational and there is a deep concern with regard to individual voice in expressing personal thoughts. It is said that La Vielle (the old woman) in the Le Roman de la Rose (12932-43) is the first inspiration of Chaucer in his writing of Wife of Bath’s tale. Common ideas in these two works are similar like the elderly whore who reminisce her younger days of scandalous sexual fun and adventures and this has a resemblance with the Wife of Bath’s Tale (46873). Some scholars are claiming that Chaucer could have gotten the idea of a woman asserting in a vigorous and active manner the significance of life but assessed negatively and produce a bad connotation among the antifeminist works. Feminism and anti-feminism Antifeminism is the key word or the key term for the Wife of Bath interpretation in the modern time. The biggest question there could ever be in the mind of the reader regarding the Wife of Bath’s tale is up to what extent women will experience rejection and how far could she tolerate anti feminist attitudes. Is there any way women could encourage feminist group of political and social equality of the sexes? Antifeminism is the given generic name for those people who have the attitude of being antagonistic to women. It is an effect of Patriarchism where in men are given the privilege to hold positions in the society. Even the Christian church has a deep concern when it comes to sexuality and even within a marriage. Some of the issues that bound to set the standard Christian way of living are celibacy, Virginity and chastity. Monasticism requires these values up to the present. Deacons and priest, after the Lateran Council of 1215, were strictly not allowed to get married and encourage priestly chastity because of the connotation about women. Confession is considered as an annual obligation and as being instituted by a priest, the big tendency of the desire in human lives sexually is manifested. There is also belief that started in ancient Indo-European that social order is only secured if men are in position of holding all the powers in every aspect of society. In effect of this, the connotation about women being a big threat came out not only to the chastity among males but also to their authority. Many texts are seen denouncing the dangers about women by the antifeminist group. The woman representing all the women under this connotation is Eve when she tempted Adam and made his downfalls through his sexual charm. The Text Antifeminist text is used as reference in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue. Texts are handed down in numbers of manuscripts like the Ellesmere which are likely in resemblance of the Wife of Bath’s Tale. This gives confusion whether or not Chaucer has incorporated the texts to his work as a revision or it is being done by other writer and not Chaucer. The texts remain to its consistency and seem to show that it is in the earlier part of its level. Most of the scholars are thinking that the style is completely in accordance to the way of Chaucer. Commentary The first part of the Wife of Bath’s Tale shows how the character strives to restore the rights to marry in as many as she wants. She married five times and started at the age of twelve. This is the time wherein the canon law allows twelve years olds to get married legally. It came to her knowledge what Jesus Christ has preached, to marry only once. Without any clue where she got that knowledge or who ever told the idea, she was troubled by this and needs to rely on the renowned authorities. Christianity The Wife of Bath’s Tale somehow made a big question mark about the quality and quantity as a piece and what it wants to imply especially to Christians during that time. Chaucer made his big apology towards this but critics argued the sincerity of what Chaucer has done. In all of these, the fact remains that the tales comprises of a huge number of religious substance. Conclusion The Wife of Bath’s Tale is considered one of the most popular in any of the Canterbury Tales. Chaucer made it clear to create enduring characters in this Tale. It could be concluded that the main issue in the interpretation of the Wife Bath’s Tale is the relationship that occurs between the prologue and tale. This masterpiece is very strong that even the critics are very hard to find the unification in their analysis. It could also be concluded that this piece is an eye opener to the Anti-feminism group. Reference Chaucer, B. Grade Saver. The canterbury tales and analysis. Retrieved from http://www.gradesaver.com/the-canterbury-tales/study-guide/section7/ Read More