Analysis Wife of Bath
Throughout "The Canterbury Tales" one of the recurrent subjects in the tellers’ tales is love. Not all of the tellers agree about what love is, however, nor how it should be shared. They philosophize about related concepts, including marriage, fidelity, and chastity, and argue about men’s and women’s roles in the context of an intimate relationship.
Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales demonstrate many different attitudes toward and perceptions of marriage. Some of these ideas are very traditional, such as that discussed in the Franklin's Tale, and others are more liberal such as the marriages portrayed in the Miller's and the Wife of Bath's Tales. While several of these tales are rather ...
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example, the Miller's Tale is a story of adultery in which a lecherous clerk, a vain clerk and an old husband, whose outcome shows the consequences of their abuses of marriage, including Nicholas' interest in astrology and Absalon's refusal to accept offerings from the ladies, as well as the behaviors of both with regards to Alison. Still, Alison does what she wants, she takes Nicholas because she wants to, just as she ignores Absalon because she wants to. Lines 3290-3295 of the Miller's Tale show Alison's blatant disrespect for her marriage to "Old John" and her planned deceit:
That she hir love hym graunted atte laste,
And swoor hir ooth, by seint Thomas of Kent
That she wol been at his comandment,
Whan that she may hir leyser wel espie.
"Myn housbonde is so ful of jalousie
That but ye wayte wel and been privee..."
On the contrary, Alison's husband loved her more than his own life, although he felt foolish for marrying her since she was so young and ...
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not necessary for a successful marriage and that virginity is never even mentioned in the Bible, as is seen in the lengthy passage of lines 59-72 of her prologue:
By expres word? I praye yow, telleth me.
I woot as wel as ye, it is no drede,
Th'apostl, whan he speketh of maydenhede,
He seyde that precept therof hadde he noon:
Men may conseille a womman to been oon,
He putte it in oure owene juggement.
Thanne hadde he dampned wedding with the dede;
And certes, if ther were no seed ysowe,
Virginitee, thanne whereof sholde it growe?
She later asks where virginity would come from if no one gave up their virginity. Clearly, the Wife of Bath's Prologue is ...
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Analysis Wife of Bath. (2011, March 30). Retrieved April 20, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Analysis-Wife-of-Bath/97185
"Analysis Wife of Bath." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 30 Mar. 2011. Web. 20 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Analysis-Wife-of-Bath/97185>
"Analysis Wife of Bath." Essayworld.com. March 30, 2011. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Analysis-Wife-of-Bath/97185.
"Analysis Wife of Bath." Essayworld.com. March 30, 2011. Accessed April 20, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Analysis-Wife-of-Bath/97185.
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