The Wife Canterbury Tales Essay Research Paper

The Wife (Canterbury Tales) Essay, Research Paper

The clerk tells his tale as a rebuttal to the “Wife of Bath’s” story, each tale has an opposing view about which sex is more dominant than another. The woman of Bath is a woman that speaks her mind without being afraid of her image, which was very uncommon during this time. She is very knowledgeable about history and real life experiences. She uses the tale of “Metellius, that filthy lout”(270), and religious aspects to support her views. Her belief about the fair treatment of women was a new perspective to most people. Her tale is more on the feminist side, whereas the clerk tells a story in response about dominance in relationships. This is taunting the woman of Bath and her beliefs by telling this story. She believes that marriage and sex aren’t of great significance, she uses these as props to increase her money or power. From the beginning they are different; her prologue is very long and in depth, whereas the clerk delves right into his story. In fact he is told by his colleagues to “put things plainly”(321) and not to “tell a tale to send us all asleep”(321). He withholds his true emotions about sexism and mastery until he has completed the tale. Whereas the woman first began by sharing her feelings, then told her story to back her thoughts.

One of the main characters from each tale is put to a test of their patience and subordination to the opposite sex. In the “Wife of Bath” the knight is allowed to choose the appearance of his wife; either she become beautiful and unfaithful or remain old, and noble. The knight has been taught that it is the women’s decision to choose her appearance. He makes the right decision by letting her be in control, he told her “you make the choice, yourself whatever pleases you suffices me”(291). In turn the knight is rewarded, for his realization of what his wife and women truly desire, by his wife.

In the “Clerk’s Tale” Griselda suffers through a great deal of emotional pain in her husband’s test of loyalty and patience. The marquis knew his wife was loyal but “longed to expose her constancy to test”(333). He went to such an extent to take away her kids and discard her as a wife, all to discover if she would remain obedient. She remained “as humble and as quick to serve, and in her love as she was wont to be”(338), despite his attempts to prove her unfaithful. The clerk didn’t understand “the need of heaping trial on her more and more.”(333). He felt the testing went too far and that Griselda endured more suffering than any individual should, woman or man. The clerk thought it was good to test a woman’s patience but only to a certain extent. In his tale the woman didn’t benefit or learn anything from the test of loyalty. However in the “Wife of Bath” the knight learned to respect women, and that they had more control in the relationship.

The woman of Bath feels that marriage is used primarily to obtain material possessions, and that it is a “misery and a woe”(258). She believes that the only benefit from marriage for women is money and their power over men. The woman proclaims that “wedding’s no sin”(260) and that it is acceptable to marry as often as possible. However during this time it was viewed as wrong to remarry often, especially immediately after being widowed. Her response to this is that God never shunned marriages or declared a certain number of times that one can be married. The wife doesn’t mention any feelings of love or compassion for her previous husbands. In the tale the clerk tells, it is mentioned that the noble marquis suffers from one fault. “He could not be prevailed upon to marry”(323), his unwillingness to wed was viewed as a negative trait. The marquis wasn’t interested in marriage yet because he had not fallen in love with anyone. One of his subjects described marriage as being “a kingdom, not a slavery”(323), that is a blessed event not one to be dreaded. However the marquis believes that happiness “and marriage seldom go together”(324). At the end of this tale he is proved wrong and discovers that marriage is a positive experience. It is even more delightful when it is with a person that you can trust and love whole heatedly. His marriage at first was performed as a duty to his country. These feelings were replaced with feelings of love. However the woman of Bath never includes emotions with marriage, in her eyes these two exist upon different planes. She shows from her experiences that marriages are based upon materialistic advances and power.

In the “Wife of Bath’s Tale” the “queen, and other ladies too implored the king to exercise his grace so ceaselessly, he gave the queen the case”(282). These women had control over the king and they used it to their advantage. They were enabled to judge the knight and punish him to what they felt was necessary and correct. The women in this book took on the reversal role and were the masters of men. The queen desired the knight to discover woman’s true feelings, she felt he would be incapable because he was a man. The knight is lost about what the answer could be until the old wise lady comes to his rescue. In the woman’s prologue she proudly discusses her own masteries over men, “there’s one thing at least that I can boast, that in the end I always ruled the roast; cunning or force was sure to make them stumble, and always keeping up a steady grumble”(269). She used many techniques to keep