The Wife of Bath: a Symbol of Antifeminism

The Wife of Bath A Symbol of Antifeminism Evelyn Cunningham, feminist advocate and journalist states, Women are the moreover oppressed group in our society that lives in intimate association with their oppressors, this quote was said by Evelyn Cunningham a feminist advocate and journalist. This quote still holds true not only in todays society but in literature are well. It is no secret that women in literature are seen as little than equal to men. This is especially true about The Wife of Bath of Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales.The Canterbury Tales divides the story of a group of people making a pilgrimage and tell stories to pass the time. The characters in The Canterbury Tales comment on society through the tales they tell. One of those characters is The Wife of Bath whose extended prologue is a fictional autobiography. The Wife of Baths prologue and tale display Chaucers antifeminist idea to society Chaucer, the author behind The Wife, uses her to demean women stimulat eually, mentally, and socially.Chaucer writes The Wife of Bath to have no boundaries when talking about sex, and in the middle ages this was very much frowned upon. The Wifes sexual forwardness digest be seen in the prologue, Chaucer writes, Experience, though noon auctoritee / Were in this world, were right y-nough to me / To speke of wo that is in marriage(). The experience she is referring to is of course sex. Chaucer has her boasting about how much sexual experience she has. How much sexual experience one has is highly inappropriate for a woman of any time era to boast about.By showing off how experienced she is in the bedroom, Chaucer makes the Wife of Bath sexually objectify herself. Thus, Chaucer is making the line of reasoning that women should only be seen as sexual objects and should be placed submissively to men, and thus demeans the female race in a sexual manner. Chaucer has the Wife misquote the Bible in her prologue. During the middle ages the Bible was not translat ed so it was not widely known. The fact that Chaucer has The Wife misquote the Bible is making women into a lampoon because there is no way she would even have this information. Makes her look stupid and single minded. Trying to come up with arguments why its ok to have sex and marry multiple time. Twists it around to defend herself. Quotes half verses, distorts what little she knows. However, Chaucer writes so that The Wife of Bath completely misinterprets the Bible and therefore is humiliating women in a mental way for instance, Chaucer writes, But this word is nat take of every wight, / But ther as deity list give it of his might. I woot wel, that thapostel was a mayde / But natheless, thogh that he wroot and sayde, / He wolde that every wight were swich as he, / Al nis but conseil to virginitee Because The Wife is publically announcing her misconception of the Bible it shows that Chaucer considered women to be mentally below men and shows that he employ The Wife of Bath to sp read his antifeminist ideas to society. Chaucer uses The Wife of Bath to show women in a clean light. In her prologue, The Wife of Bath says that she has been married five times and hopes to be married a sixth for example, general prologue liberal quote.Wants to get married again for sex not companionship Chaucer wirtes, For, lordinges, sith I twelf yeer was of age, / Thonked be God that is eterne on lyve, / Housbondes at chirche-dore I have had fyve The Wife of Bath does not marry for love, she marries so she can have sex. This can be seen as promiscuous behavior because she is casually marrying to casually have sex. Chaucer uses the Wife of Bath to socially demean women because he makes The Wife of Bath take part in promiscuous behavior.Throughout literature and history women have constantly been seen as less equal to the male race. This is evident in Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer uses The Wife of Bath as a symbol for the female race and through his story he di splays his antifeminist views sexually, mentally and socially. Whether women are better than men I cannot say but I can say they are certainly no worse, this quotes should be kept in mind while reading The Canterbury Tales because Cahucer imposes his antifeminist views on his readers.Talks about husbands as macrocosm in control of them and brags about her faults of stereotype of women. Accused husbands of cheating when it was really me. Spent all their money. Fourth husband cheated on him. Fifth husband younger. 1 . lines 4-6 2 . Golda Meir feminist activist