Wife Of Bath A03 Flashcards
H Marshall Leicester
An example of an early feminist, striving for autonomy
Phillip Allen (writers)
“epitome of all the things those writers were complaining about”
E. Hansen
product of a masculine imagination against which she only ineffectually and superficially rebels
Susan Crane
The Wife is destined to fail in her search for equality because she is trying to gain acceptance by emulating men
James Winny (religion)
She has overthrown the prohibitive morality of the Medieval Church and planted her own pragmatic doctrine of the ruins
Pope
The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale is a composite…made up of two elements, a sermon and a confession.
Oberembt (sex)
She carefully criticises accepted beliefs about sex in her presentation of married life
Thomas Van
All of her disguises can be removed only to reveal another disguise
Laurie Finke (children)
The link between sexuality and monetary gain is the key to the Wife’s performance - she produces not children but money
Laurie Finke (symbolism)
symbolic of the barrenness of her life, or her single-minded pursuit of profit
Layser (widow)
Chaucer’s WoB, they were expected to be avaricious and sexually greedy
-LInks to dragon imagery
Tasioulas
Animal imagery is in fact used almost entirely to refer to women… Animals traditionally symbolise lack of reason
Roberts
The Wife of Bath’s tale is referred technically as an exemplum, a story told to illustrate an intellectual idea
Fiskin
“The widow looking for another husband is standard in comedy; in the English literary tradition, she is best represented by Chaucers wife of bath”
- Satire/comical
- Rivals= pure comedy
Mark Williams
“Socially upwardly mobile”
-WOB/ LUCY
Anna Caughey
“Play becomes a textual smokescreen for Chaucer himself”
Michael Gregory
“It was the Wife’s mask of love that gains her all that she desires”
-Motif of masks- feigns love to get what she wants
What is love to her= money and sex
Rebecca Marsland
“The Wife of Bath offers a tale that ultimately champions marriage”
- happily ever after
- Feigned equality
J Tasioulas
“The misogynistic tales are turned inside out “
Karen Alkalay-Gut
“Alisoun is both intelligent and morally corrupt”
Christine Tucker
sexuality
“takes full advantage of her sexuality”
Mark Williams
“The wife reduces human love and sex to business transactions”
Rivals- financial lexis
Nicole Smith
“The Wife of Bath embodies a number of negative female characteristics… stupidity, arrogance and deceitfulness”
Carolyn Larrington
“Feisty protofeminist”
“Misogynist nightmare”
Tale- “delicate romance”
Helen cooper
“Classic female fantasy fulfilled”
