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Women in the Wife of Bath

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The ‘Wife of Bath’ written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the 1380s is a extract told from the perspective of a feminist woman living in England during the middle ages, indicating her extreme ideas of female “maistrye” and sharing statements such as “I have the power during al my lief upon his proper body and nought he,” which shows the Wife speaking in a feminist manner. Chaucer present the wife as as inconsistent, illogical and amoral. She is outspoken and confident, not subtle yet has ingenious stratagems as she challenges authority. Women are seen to be more ingenious in their stratagems through the opening statement of the Wife of Bath’s prologue, “Experience, through noon auctoritee Were in this world, is right ynogh for me To speke of wo that is in marriage” (line1-3) These few lines are at the core of the whole text. In it, Chaucer make the Wife a rebel, challenging the accepted convention and expectations of her period and of her sex. This opening sentence shows that the wife is not subtle, she is outspoken and confident as she gets straight to the point, the ‘woe’ in marriage. The Wife has a tendency to speak in bold statements about her belief in female dominance, showing that women are not the subtler sex, “An housbonde I wol have, I wol nat lette, Which shal be bothe my detour and my thrall.” (Line-154-55) This shows that there is no question of quality between the sexes and although that would have been radical enough in the middle ages. The Wife states the extreme position, in keeping with the nature of her character and the purpose for which Chaucer created her. The Wife is brave as she questions authority and uses her experience to contradict the rules that govern, she is a brave women living in a era where women were but mere possessions. The wife uses key words such as “maistrie” and “soveraintee” to describe her ingenious stratagems of the power she attains over her fifth husband, Jankin. “And when that I had gene unto me, By Maistrie, al the soverainetee.” This it the logical culmination of the intention that is at the core of all she intends to express through her prologue and her tale. This shows that the wife is cunning and gets what she believes every woman wants. Another example of the Wife being subtle in her ingenious stratagems is

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