Chauser's Wife of Bath is a Female Misgoynist - Term Paper Example

But Chaucer portrays the Wife of Bath as a female misogynist that shows how a woman could react to those male expectations. Thesis-Supporting Passages The Wife of Bath is the most unusual female character who has been interpreted differently by different critics from different points of views. While some critics claim that the Wife of Bath is a typical and also stereotypical embodiment of womanly impiety, sinfulness, immorality and transgression, others claim that Chaucer’s portrayal of the Wife of Bath is asexual and convincingly feministic.

Indeed the Wife of Bath’s notoriety and debauchery can be perceived as her individual tendency to follow her own pursuits and her practice of using sexual attributes for personal is essentially her only plausible alternative to economic empowerment in the strictly patriarchic Chaucerian society. Also the reasoning capability of the Wife of Bath to support her cause presents her as a female misogynist’s challenge to the patriarchal notion about a woman. . is no biblical proof against remarriage of woman, As she says, Eke well I wot he said that my husband Should let father and mother, and take to me; But of no number mention made he, Of bigamy or of octogamy; Why should men then speak of it villainy?

She throws a challenge to everyone to prove her wrong on the fact that the Holy Scripture has not set a limit to the number of successive marriages that a woman can have throughout her life. Again she argues against the traditional notion of patriarchy that a man’s polygamy is acceptable because men are capable of performing sexual intercourse vigorously with many women. She says that though a man who is capable of performing intercourse with many women is rare, King Solomon had many wives.

She believes in King Solomon’s virility since it is in the Scripture. Yet she wonders, Which gift of God had he for all his wives, No man hath such that in this world alive is (40-41). Conclusion In the beginning, the readers become appalled to view a sexually degraded woman who can carefully argue for her sexual role that is perceptibly problematic in the eye of Chaucerian society. But the way in which the Wife of Bath argues against the beliefs of medieval patriarchy about woman seems to be irrefutable.

Nonetheless an judicious reader will perceive that Chaucer upholds the Wife of Bath as a female misogynist who is overtly feminine and very independent in nature. Works Cited Chaucer, Jeffrey, The Canterbury Tales, New York: Hacket Publishers,