Throughout the Wife of Bath’s Tale and Prologue we as readers acknowledge the fact that this character Chaucer has created is not like the average woman of her time. She is portrayed as the opposite of the stereotypical medieval woman. The Wife of Bath holds a high intelligence and an overwhelming ability to manipulate and control the opposite sex. She emphasizes the importance of women controlling their men in the line “How pitously a-nyght I made hem swynke!” This only announces her total control over her husbands. She is perfectly capable of attaining power over her husbands when she states “They were ful glad whan I spak to hem faire, For God it woot, I chide hem spitously.” She is fully aware of the fact that she treats her h

She tends to use a lot of colloquial slang in this passage too such as “gossib” (mate) “kaynard” (fool) “holour” (lecher). Diction such as this was likely to be used in the daily vocabulary of the people at the time he wrote the poem. We could presume that by using colloquial language such as this, Chaucer is addressing a more normal everyday audience. Chaucer established the English language in literature. He was often called the ‘mirror of his times’ because he was able to reflect the concerns and beliefs in society during his life.

The Wife of Bath regularly reverts back to past speech between people and past conversations for example when she says “That many a nyght they songen ‘Weilawey!’” This highlights the informal manner in which she is speaking. This speech is very simple and Chaucer did not intend for it to be complicated in any way for the listeners of her tale. Again, implying that the audience were of a standard set of people.

In conclusion, Chaucer portrays The Wife of Bath in such realistic and humane detail that it is difficult to simply view her as a satire of an unpleasant woman. His creativity manages to bring the character to life and at the same time depicting a diverse insight to the medieval society. It is fair to say that the character Chaucer created was stronger than the average medieval woman. He presented her as the opposite of the women in her society. Chaucer was influenced by what he saw and how people acted. I believe he succeeded in demonstrating certain attitudes and beliefs in that particular period, through the character of the Wife of Bath.

The

Some topics in this essay:
Wife Bath, Wife Bath’s, , Medieval Europe, Tale Prologue, wife bath, character chaucer, character chaucer created, aimed audience, woman wife bath, woman wife, chaucer created, audience commoners, opposite sex, medieval woman, particular period, wife bath’s,