Chaucer

discuss Chaucer's presentation of the wife of bath in the wife of bath prologue

Chaucer portray’s the Wife of Bath as a strong and powerful woman, who asserts dominance in her relationships to gain power and control. This is shown through Chaucer writing her prologue to be longer than her story, allowing him to portray the basis of her character to portray this female dominance. Chaucer portrays this dominance in two main way. Firstly through her physical and sexual dominance. Chaucer writes “I Laughe when i thinks How pitously a-night I made hem swinke!” This shows her sexual dominance over her men, with the word “swinke” having connotations of panic or fear. Her laughing over this act of power acts to reinforce her dominance. The rhyming couplet of “Thinke” and “Swinke” highlights the relationship between the two words showing how this sexual dominance is calculated and thought out. This portrayal of the Wife of Bath as overtly sexual and promiscous would have been considered shocking during this period as female sexuality was considered taboo. Women were supposed to be housewives and child bearers but the Wife of Bath contradicts these stereotypes, portraying her as a headstrong, powerful and independent woman. Chaucer’s portrays her as using her sexuality to get what she wants and this shows her as astute and intelligent. Women of this period were subjugated and dominated by men however exploits mens lust as a weakness and uses it for her own gain. This sexual dominance shown in her prologue is highlighted in the tale by the contrast of the man being sexually dominant by raping the woman.   Feminist critics of Chaucer would say that this portrayal of the Wife of Bath as strong, independent and in control of her sexuality is Chaucer exploring early feminism and that the Wife of Bath is an early feminist character who challenges the patriarchy. However many would argue that Chaucer is in fact portraying stereotypical female negative attributes of deceitfulness...