The Evolution Of Equality Essay Research Paper

The Evolution Of Equality Essay, Research Paper

THE EVOLUTION OF EQUALITY

Women in today’s society are almost always viewed as equals.

Acheiving equality has been a tremendous strain on women, but times have

finally started to change. Looking back on English literature from the

thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, male domination is portrayed to its fullest

extent, and continued to be up until the nineteenth century. Not only were

women authors and writers almost non-existent, but the women portrayed in

literature were almost always weak, frail, devious, deceitful, and constantly

compared to children and the insane; the absolute lowest class of society. One

poet stands alone from the rest though. Geoffrey Chaucer managed to portray

a women in the thirteenth century as strong, powerful, and smart. The Wife

of Bath was written in a time where Chaucer took a very grave risk in writing

a poem which portrayed how women felt about the society in which they

lived. Chaucer contradicted the church, the bible, Jesus and man kind,

through the Wife of Bath. The wife of bath, herself, is a character on which

centuries of gratitude should be bestowed. She is the evolution of equality

and the diminishing of inferiority. The Wife of Bath reveals some of the

harsh amenities of life that were brought to her through her five husbands

and how she struggles to bring a balance of power to men and women. The

Wife of bath emphasizes her opinion of inequality by harshly criticizing

men, only to evoke her underlying message of an undying desire to force men

to see that she is not inferior to their kind, but only equal.

The bible, for many, is a world wide resources text. The bible outlines

morals, values, rules, and beliefs that are to be carried out for eternity. When

an issue in life contradicts the bible, huge steps are taken to correct this issue

and make it the way God stated that it should be. This came to be a great

advantage for the Wife of Bath in order to prove that the way women were

being treated was not what God wanted. For example, the Wife of Bath was

condemned for having more than one husband, but as she stated, the bible

has many prophets that had more than one wife and they were not

condemned;

“I woot wel Abraham was an holy man,

And Jacob eek, as fer as evere I can,

And eech of hem hadde wives mo than two,

And many another holy man also.” (Chaucer, lines 61-64).

The wife also argued with confidence about Solomon, “Lo, here the wiese

King daun Salomon: / I trowe he hadde wives many oon…” (Chaucer, lines

35-36), proving that he had seven hundred wives, though this was okay

according to God. Chaucer developed the Wife of Bath to begin from the

start of the story with rage, fury, and persistence against the ever growing

dominance of men. The reason for this was because the Wife of Bath had the

proof in front of her that many of the characteristics of her life were scorned

upon, even though these characteristics had been done and overly expanded

upon throughout history, even before Christ. The Wife of Bath knew that if

her husband died, being a widow for the rest of her life was not right,

especially in the eyes of God, “God bad us for to wexe and multiplye…” (

Chaucer, line 28). Her marriages were not all good, yet the Wife of Bath

remained true, determined to at the very least prove to her husbands that she

also had power and this power needed to be respected if she was to respect

theirs.

The Wife of Bath’s character can also be defended because of her

constant struggle for loyalty and respect,

“Sire olde cainard, is this thyn array?

Why is my neighebores wif so gay?

She is honoured overal ther she gooth:

I sitte at hoom; I have no thrifty cloth.

What doostou at my neighebores hous?

Is she so fair? Artou so amorous?

What roune ye with oure maide, benedicite?”

(Chaucer, lines 241-247)

In this quotation the Wife of Bath wants respect and she does not understand

why her husband is not loyal, especially when she is loyal to him. This

situation is a replica of events that happen today, in the twentieth century.

Women want respect, loyalty, and honesty, and the Wife of Bath plans on

achieving this, back in a time when it was never thought possible. Her voice

speaks and is eventually heard about five hundred years later. Women today

are constantly trying to maintain a balance of power that the Wife of Bath

had to struggle to create.

The relationship that is created between the knight and the hag also

illustrates the wife’s intention of proving that if a man becomes loving and

sensitive to a woman this does not mean that the male is being dominated.

The end result actually proves to be a relationship where two people are

happy and secure in their love and most importantly respect each others

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