Chaucer's Wife Of Bath: Women In The Late Middle Ages

1432 Words6 Pages
Chaucer’s Wife of Bath Research Essay Chaucer’s Wife of Bath was a short tale from his book called The Canterbury Tales, that was originally published in 1475. The Wife of Bath Tale gives us a look of how women may have been portrayed in the Late Middle Ages. The character who told the Wife of Bath's Tale had a prologue that was almost as twice as long as her tale. This text gave insight as to the way women did things in the Middle Ages, why they may have acted the way they did, and also last but not least what a woman really wants in the world. For starters, The Wife of Bath receives much attention because it gives an outlook on what she believes about love and life itself. The prologue begins with her telling about the five husbands she has had since the age of twelve. She shows nothing but honesty and does not have any regrets of having five different husbands within her lifetime. On page 683 in The Norton Anthology World Literature book (Geoffrey Chaucer, Wife of Bath Prologue) she says “he says to be wedded is not sinning; better to be wedded than burning.” That quote in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue…show more content…
Others might disagree, but while reading her tale and prologue those are some of the things I took from it. Women from modern day may look at her as very selfish. She does show a lot of selfishness, but it can be understandable. What makes Wife of Bath Tale relevant in modern day? A lot of women today are doing many of the things she did. Women in modern day are trying to have just as much power as she did in medieval time. The term for women like wife of bath in today’s society are called gold diggers. Many women today might not agree with how she handled her situations, but in reality they are doing the same. Honestly, she just plays it smarter by marrying the man she is with at the

More about Chaucer's Wife Of Bath: Women In The Late Middle Ages

Open Document