The Wife of Bath :: essays papers

The married woman of lavThe Wife of BathAn Illusion of RealityWhen one thinks of marriage, the most jointideal is equality ofcontrol among man and woman. Chaucer incorporates devil opposingviewpoints on marriage in The Canterbury Tales. The Wife ofBaths tale, in which she says that one spouse, preferablythe wife, inhering have mastery over the other. On the otherhand, The Franklins tale disapproves of the Wife of Bathsphilosophy by saying that equality and trust are essentialin h elderlying a marriage together as verbalised here.... And to enhance the bliss ofboth of their lives. He freely gave his telephone as a knightthat he would never darken her becharm by exercising hisauthority against her will or showing jealousy but would obeyher in all with simple trust as any lover of a lady must...(427)Now, the question is, Can the veritable(prenominal) readerfind the Wife of Batha trustworthy person. David Parker, a literary critic,believes that The Wife of Bath Should not be f ullytrusted, ascribable to the contradictory things she said about herrelationships with her five hubbys in her prologue. Withthe first common chord husbands, the Wife was happy because she wasmarried to wealthy men, but was unhappy because they were oldand could not fulfill her sexual desires. On the other hand,with her last two husbands, the Wife got her sexual desiresfulfilled, but theres a huge question grade about her masteryof her younger husbands. Her relationship with her fifth, andlast husband, is a point example of this contradiction. WhenJohn, her fifth husband, hit her it was apparent to thereader, and to me, that she wasnt in the very merrymarriage as seen here...Then like a maddened lion,with a yell he started up and smote me on the head and downI fell upon the floor for dead. And when he saw howmotionless I couch he was aghast and would have flown away, butin the end, I started orgasm to....(297)Here, its evident to me that the Wife wasvery submissive in this marriage and that her husband is the one who shows themastery. What didnt surprise me at the end of her prologuewas the fact that everything was sweet and flushed and that