Реферат: Role Of Women In Canterbury Tales Essay 2

reader another type of woman of the time, this time in the effect of

the story teller. The Wife Of Bath is a tough woman with a mind of

her own and she s not afraid to speak it. She intimidates men and

woman alike due to the strength she possesses. But instead of showing

this as a good characteristic, Chaucer makes her toothless and

ugly. She has also had five different husbands and countless affairs,

thus breaking innocent men s hearts.

In one part of the prologue, the Wife Of Bath speaks of

marriage and women from a man s point of view:

Thou lykenest wommanes love to helle,

To bareyne lond, ther water may not dwelle.

Thou lyknest is also to wilde fyr:

The more it brenneth, the more it hath desyr

To consume every thing that brent wol be.

Thous seyst right as wormes shende a tree,

Right so a wyf destroyeth hir housebonde;

This knowe they that been to wyves bonde. (198)

The Wife Of Bath brings up many a valid point throughout the prologue

but Chaucer voids her opinion because of her social class and looks,

when in truth she is very wise. It is as if her intelligence is

overshadowed by the fact that has had five husbands and considered

something of a whore.

It is not only in three narration s that women are thought of

as having an evil-like quality, that they always tempt and take from

men, but in almost every one of the stories. They are depicted of

untrustworthy, selfish and very vain throughout the collection of

tales. Chaucer obviously has very opinionated views of the marriage

and the opposite sex and expresses it very strongly in The

Canterbury Tales.