WIFE OF BATH Flashcards
MARRIAGE
she defends marriage - those that marry may not be as chaste as those that don’t marry but they are still fulfilling the wishes of God
she is so strongly in favour of marriage because she gets to have sex and the opportunity to gain property - selfish gain (similar to EVE and DOCTOR Faustus)
SEX
to gain power in relationship
sex doesn’t equate to love, but is more of a commodity
WOMEN AND FEMINITY
she speaks a lot about antifeminist stereotypes - painting women as shallow, deceitful, lustful and unreasonable
while she conforms to these stereotypes throughout the book, she also asks the audience to ponder theses - explaining that men would be presented with bad reputations if women wrote about them
the tale - tells of women desiring sovereignty
POWER
wishes to gain power over her husbands - through different means such as withholding sex from them
power in writing - men normally write but if women giving the chance they would have more power to express themselves
WEALTH
Simular to Dr. Faustus, the Wife desires wealth and power –> she likes it even more than sex,
They both want to aggrandize themselves ( Wife through marriage, Faustus through forbidden knowledge)
RULES and ORDER
after the knight rapes the woman at the begging, the rest of the tale is concerned about the punishment - emphasizing how the law and order
Connections: Margery Kemp
Margery Kemp- seeking sovereignty over husbands in marriage
Wife of bath uses sex as a form of sovereignty, MK sovereignty is found in lack of sex.
Wife of bath goes on pilgrimages to seek husband, MK goes on them for purely religious reasons
Connection: UTOPIA
In Utopia the costume in marriage is to see each others naked body
in WB makes the same argument saying that “men must thoroughly examine the cattle before acquiring them, but men (and women) can’t examine each other before marriage”
Connection: Paradise Lost
Eve and the Wife desire to have soverignty and make their own decisions ( even if they aren’t always the right ones)
- men wishing to control women choices/sexuality
Eve is believed to be inferior to Adam, and similarity the Wife of Bath character is belittled -.
Connections: Way of the World
Sex and marriage are inherently linked to money
Connections: Othello
both WB and Desdemona: slandered by husbands with misogynistic texts
Connections: GK
magical elements
- the deal with the old hag transforming into beautiful and faithful
the GK deal
