The Wife of Bath :: essays papers

The married woman of BathThe Wife of BathAn Illusion of RealityWhen adept thinks of marriage, the most commonideal is equality ofcontrol among man and woman. Chaucer incorporates two opposingviewpoints on marriage in The Canterbury Tales. The Wife ofBaths tale, in which she says that one spouse, sort ofthe wife, must have mastery over the other. On the otherhand, The Franklins tale disapproves of the Wife of Bathsphilosophy by saying that equality and trust are inseparablein holding a marriage together as expressed here.... And to enhance the bliss ofboth of their lives. He freely gave his promise as a knightthat he would never darken her delight by exercising hisauthority against her will or showing jealousy but would pursueher in all with simple trust as any lover of a lady must...(427)Now, the question is, Can the typical readerfind the Wife of Batha trustworthy person. David Parker, a literary critic,believes that The Wife of Bath Should not be fullytrusted, due to the con tradictory things she said about herrelationships with her basketball team husbands in her prologue. Withthe first three 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 mark about her masteryof her younger husbands. Her relationship with her fifth, andlast husband, is a prime example of this contradiction. WhenJohn, her fifth husband, hit her it was apparent to thereader, and to me, that she wasnt in the very blissfulmarriage 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 lay he was aghast and would have flown away, butin the end, I started coming to....(297)Here, its evident to me that the Wife wasvery submissive in thismarriage and that her husband is th e one who shows themastery. What didnt force me at the end of her prologuewas the fact that everything was sweet and rosy and that