Chaucers Use of the Female Gender to Shape His Text with...

Chaucers Use of the Female Gender to Shape His Text with Reference to Wife of Bath With reference to Chaucers Wife of Bath, we can clearly see how Chaucer uses the female gender to shape his text. Chaucer uses the female gender to show the many chacteristics or traits a female may have. He shows this through the tale of the Wife of Bath and the female characters in the tale such as the old women. Chaucer hopes to give us an insight into a womens thought and desires. The Wife of Bath tells the tale of a young knight whom, after the rape of a maiden, must search for the answer to the question, what is it that women most desire? The knight has one year to find the answer and return to King Arthurs court, or else he will be†¦show more content†¦This is all proven through the many ways she portrays her characters. The wife of Bath desires the obvious in life, but what she desires most is being more powerful than her husband. In a relationship, she wants to be the dominant of the two, the one who is in control and takes the decisions in the relationships. This i s shown in her tale when no women in the assembly disagreed with the knights reply (and certainly not the old hag). There is another example of the desire for power of the women in a relationship. The old hag, after marrying the knight, gives him the choice of which women he rather have. The knight leaves the decision up to the old lady and is rewarded. The wife of bath desires to have a husband that is meek, young and fresh in bed. This desire also leads her to become envious of her charters in her tale. The Wife of Bath is jealous of the old hag in her tale because the old lady has the power in the story. However in the wife of baths true life, she didnt always have control in her relationship with her fifth husband. The wife of bath was married five times and is looking for a sixth husband. She used the church as a way to meet men not as a place of worship. Pilgrimage provided her with the opportunity for traveling as well as meeting new people. Her journeys are hard and dangerou s, which show the reader that she is a robust and adventitious woman. Clothing is a way of characterizing her, which isShow MoreRelatedCanterbury Tales Character Analysis997 Words   |  4 Pages Additionally, Morrison claims that the Wife’s vernacular demonstrates the trilingual society existing in fifteenth century England. The Wife references her sexual organs in the three prominent languages of her time; she uses the English term â€Å"queynte,† the French term â€Å"bele chose† and the Latin term â€Å"quoniam† (Morrison). The three languages represent the structure of the patriarchal society existing in England; Latin is the language of the church and government, French is the language of the nobility