The Wife of Bath's Tale. . . . . Wow... She really is something else. I semi-enjoyed reading her tale of the old hag and the young rapist knight. The Wife of Bath has had five husbands and is open to having a sixth. She tells a story that would make it seem like she wants to be a good wife, but ends her story all screwed up.
I can't help but think, women really want to be in charge of their husbands and lovers? ? ? Yep, I can definitely see that. What also had me thinking was the old woman's point of view while they were laying in bed. The rapist knight complained about his new wife being old and ugly and low borne wife. But she argues the fact that you can have high noble blood but be a low down person at the same time. A person's lineage has nothing to do with the character of that person. She also argues that money has nothing to do with being rich. It's about wanting little. These subjects are asked to people all the time in little sayings like money can't buy happiness. Her argument had me thinking about what is the definition of rich? You can be rich in several things. I want to be rich in money and love and happiness and faith, etc. The wife then gives her husband a choice, either to have a good, loyal and ugly wife or a young, pretty, and unfaithful wife. He lets her decide. He took her advice from earlier and gave her dominance over him. Finally a good choice from the rapist. In return, the wife becomes all things good, she is young, pretty, faithful, overall a good wife.
I enjoyed thinking about the topics the wife brings up to the husband in the Wife's tale. For a second there, the Wife of Bath seems to be pretty smart. But then she ends her story with a small prayer. Wanting Jesus to give Wife's husbands who are young, good looking, and great in bed, AND the power to outlive the men. She's so contradictory. She tells us a story with an ending where the couple has a wonderful long and healthy marriage. Then kind of implies she wants women to be whores like her and have multiple husbands. Despite her past relationships, I was kind of hopeful for the Wife, thinking maybe she could change into a good wife who doesn't torment her husband. But then I lost all hope for her after reading her whole story.
The other part that I did not like about her story as you could probably tell from above, is that the knight is a rapist. He got away by finding out what women truly want, which is obviously not the d. This angers me so much. He RAPED someone and in return he gains a beautiful young loyal wife. I would have sent him to get his head cut off with a rusty sword. This is not okay. The moral of the story should be not to rape women, instead, it's giving women dominance over men then you can have a great marriage. This is angering.
The Wife of Bath, where to begin... The Wife of Bath spends her prologue sharing her past relationships with each of her FIVE husbands. Amber did not mention it in this post but I agree with what she was saying in class on our first day discussing the Wife of Bath's prologue, that the Wife of Bath killed her husbands, okay okay, maybe not all of them. Most of them were pretty crappy husbands and it would not have surprised me in the least if she got fed up with them. However, back to Amber's post, I completely agree with her point about the ending of the Wife's tale. The knight committed a crime, he raped someone, why did Lady Guinevere spare his life? Was it radical faith that he could complete her task and change his ways or was she merely toying with him by making him believe that he could save himself when she did not believe that he could? Growing up most children learn about virtues and life lessons but it seems to me that the knight did not learn a lesson at all. In fact it seems as if he was almost rewarded for his misdeed? Hello, getting to marry a beautiful woman is not exactly a punishment.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, the Wife of Bath gets to be heard and that is what she chooses to say? A story about a rapist who goes on a journey to find out what women really want and then marries a faithful hag who turns into a beautiful (and faithful) woman. My Middle English is still a little rusty but I am pretty sure that the knight's choices were old, ugly, and faithful or young, beautiful, and unfaithful... apparently, the witch gets to choose the qualities she wants to have?... was this a yes, no, maybe type of situation? I guess we will never know. While, I enjoyed the outspoken feminist side of the Wife of Bath's personality her decision making skills and her story-telling skills (or lack thereof) frustrate me.
What does the Wife of Bath see as good, and what does she see as bad? The Wife is not a feminist, as she sees a need to consistently be in marriage to a man, whether he be good or bad. The Wife does not ever try to change the position of women within society. Thus, she is trying to change the views of a woman within the current restrictions of society. She wants to be rich and in charge, but still sees the views and power of a man over that of a woman, as has been drilled into her over the years. She is a woman's rights activist while still seeing women as inferior. Wanting men to "treat their women well" wanting respect and authority, while still being underneath. I believe that her cause is a just cause, as she wouldn't be accepted within the realm of society if she was anymore feminist.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the story itself is within these lines, the woman defies the man, and he becomes better for it, but society still expects the woman to always do what makes the man happy. The difference here is that The Wife expects the same thing from the husbands. Two parties working for the common good of the other. She says two selfless souls are really the only way a relationship can work. Thus, the witch becomes pretty, young, and faithful, because, even though her husband is a rapist, she will always do what is best for him, because she knows that he too will do what's best for her.
In conclusion, while the end is not satisfying, it is extremely relevant for a right step in the direction of equal rights, this just isn't as big a step as some extremists would see fit.