To some modern day feminist critics, like Carolyn Dinshaw, Chaucer was protofeminist, a writer ahead of his time, who used the medium of literature to speak out against the injustices the opposite gender suffered. Nevertheless, I feel that Chaucer was fundamentally a writer and a product of the misogynistic times in which he lived. The feminist reading of Chaucer seeks to prove (through the means of historical information; satirical study; and stereotyping of the other pilgrims) that the Wife of Bath represents not Chaucer’s act of feminism, but his apparent reconstruction of Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun’s “La Vieille” in The Romance of the Rose. His parody of the “Old Woman’s” speech exemplifies the same content, which are her life and the wiles of women. (Beidler 18) One has to wonder why then did Chaucer use the “La Vieilla” as a model for his Wife of Bath if it was not to make

Some daide honour, some saide jolinesse;

fun of women. In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses a style of writing that tends to make fun of and point out the inner controversy of each pilgrim. Why would he be satirical with everyone else, yet sincere with her? Why would he cast almost all the other women poorly, but then ask us to believe (as the modern feminist critic does) that the Wife is his voice for feminism?

“My lige lady, generally,” quod he,

Some topics in this essay:
Wife Bath, Christopher Cannon, Tale Chaucer, Diamond Chaucer, Dinshaw Chaucer, Wife Bath’s, Tales Chaucer, Bath Antifeminist, Romance Rose, Bath Chaucer, wife bath, “de raptu meo”, wife bath’s, antifeminist views, “de raptu, independent woman, modern feminist, believe chaucer, canterbury tales, fictional character, using wife,