The Wife of Bath - Essay Example

The Wife of Bath Introduction Some literary works ranging from poetry, proverbs, riddles, fables and other types of stories or narratives have a lot of moral lessons as well as normal lessons derived from them by the different readers. The writes or rather authors of these literary works try to comprehend what is happening in the society and, therefore, come up with stories, from which some societal problems can get projected. In other words, these authors help us to draw conceptual skill in matters of characterization and traits of individual, issues in the community, and provide us with a scope making things better. In this essay paper on literature, I am going to analyze the Wife Of Bath, by Geoffrey Chaucer, and One Thousand and One Nights, by Hanan al-Shaykh. I will, therefore, come up the different feelings that these authors want to develop from the tales. Setting of the Tales The events in the story, the Wife of Bath, take place during the reign of King Arthur, and it was during this time that the isle of Britain got filled up with fairies and elves (Chaucer, Beidler and Chaucer, 1). There are some things that Geoffrey Chaucer wants us to like, respect, think about the Wife of Bath. He winks at us in some way by using irony and sarcasm, and this is evident by both the language used in the story and the whole flow of events in his book. One Thousand and One Nights, is a story of the past times, beginning with a king, Shahryar, in Persia, who realizes that his wife has been engaging in an affair with another man. He gets furious, and the best solution for him is for the queen to get beheaded and continuously marry other virgin and making them get beheaded the following morning. The king had executed 1000 women, before the night he met Scheherazade, the daughter of his personal assistant and was now the 1001 Virgin on the list. We later realize that Scheherazade got so bright, wise and courageous to an extent that she came up with captivating tales for a period of 1000 days, making the kill marry her. Analysis Throughout the story, the author, Geoffrey Chaucer, has developed some themes by the use of the different characters in the story as well as assigning some particular traits and characterization to some individuals. Among the themes displayed in the book are antifeminism, behavior in marriage, female dominance, the economics of love and sex and Lollardy. Among the most dominant characters in the book include a knight in King Arthur’s time, King Arthur, Queen Guinevere and the old lag, who later got married to the Knight, among many others. For the case of Queen Guinevere, who is the Wife of Bath in this case, the author wants us to respect as well as like her because of her wisdom and humanity she is displaying. The factor demanding respect from us is the rationality she diplays in thinking and decision making. In Arthur’s court there existed some beautiful maidens, among them; one came across a young, lusty knight. The Knight got overcome by the lust and by use of hid personal sense and power; he decided to rape the beautiful maiden. According to the constitution of that court, the only penalty to such a crime is getting death sentence by decapitation. When the king was about to give the ruling, the queen together with other ladies of the court intervened and asked the king to give the knight a last chance for the purpose of saving his own life. The queen later gives the knight a simple challenge that within a period of one year, he has to conduct his research and come up what women values most in the word, and report it back to the court. In this case, Geoffrey Chaucer has used irony in the sense that the knight has made a crime against a woman, and his judgment is to get made by a man. Instead, a woman comes in and saves him from the death penalty. We expect to see the King, who is a man, in this case, to sympathize with his fellow man but instead it’s a woman who has gotten Dishonored, comes in and save the knight’s life. Through this, the author wants us to think of her as one who has the sense of humanity as well as respecting and appreciating her wisdom when interacting with her fellow human beings. By showing the need of embracing rationality and sympathy feelings to others, the author demonstrates on how the Wife of Bath presents a simple but challenging trick to the knight. Geoffrey Chaucer makes us like the character of the queen since she gives the Knight an opportunity to rebuild his life become a good citizen. Indeed this comes true when he got married to the old lag, and lived a happy family life (Chaucer and Winny, 19). The author has used some form of irony and sarcasm when we see the Wife of Bath asking the knight to go and inquire about what women value most, yet herself she is a woman. By her being a woman, means that she knows what women value most and therefore she wants him to develop different views and respect to women. He later approached some women and realized that indeed, women value having sovereignty power over their husbands. About the Wife of Bath, the author wants us to respect as well as think of her wise approach in stopping vandalization and exploitataion of women. The author wants us to recognize her efforts towards doing away with men’s character of vandalizing and exploiting women’s rights, she staryegies on how men should empower women in the society. In One Thousand and One Nights, there are some feelings and thoughts that the authors of this book want us to feel about Scheherazade. The king has been beheading many virgins, totaling to one thousand, and Scheherazade risks her life to approach the king as the next virgin and in the process stop the killings (Dawood, 11). This comes even after her father and sister disagree with her move, keeping in mind that his father was the king’s personal assistant and was the one conducting the beheading action. The authors want us to feelt respect and recognize Scheherazade for the change she brought in this particuilar community due to her courage in seeing the change coming true. The authors of this story want us to recognise, feel and conduct an analysis on Scheherazade for her wisdom during this time (Scholey, 15). Her stories are so much captivating that ends up transporting the king on flights full of fancy, as well as partially narrating them by dawn. Because the partial narration is to convince the king to give her more time for resuming the story the next day, hence avoiding the killing. The authors, therefore, want us respect and appreciate the small virgin as the game changer and game planner in the entire Persia, during those times. This illustrates the relevance of the young virgin who later becomes the new queen of Persia. With her wisdom, she helps the king in decision making, both for short term and long term basis. Conclusion By use of different characterization as well as plot development and story flow in these books, the authors have gotten in a position to deliver some messages. The messages include matters about feelings, respect, wisdom, characterization, sympathy and rationality when dealing with our fellow human beings. The authors have therefore showed that we have to consider each other relevant and respect when it comes to the way we relate in our daily life activities. The authors also pass the messages of getting innovative and creative when it comes to approaching the different life situations and matters. Works Cited Chaucer, Geoffrey, and James Winny. The Wife Of Baths Prologue And Tale. Cambridge: University Press, 1965. Print. Chaucer, Geoffrey, Peter G Beidler, and Geoffrey Chaucer. The Wife Of Bath. Boston: Bedford Books of St. Martins Press, 1996. Print. Dawood, N. J. Tales From The Thousand And One Nights. [Harmondsworth, Eng.]: Penguin Books, 1973. Print. Mardrus, J. C, and E. Powys Mathers. The Book Of The Thousand Nights And One Night. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986. Print. Read More