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Essay about The Wife Of Bath Literary Analysis

1.The story opens with a description of the transition of the spring season. The weather becomes warmer, the birds come out to sing, and flowers reopen themselves up to the world. April showers bring the greenery back to life. This can also be said about the humans excited for tolerable weather. By celebrating the vitality and richness of spring, it gives the opening lines a dreamy feel which invokes romantic elements of a love story. To the reader’s surprise though, the story is not about a romance at all, but a pilgrimage. Excited for beautiful weather, everyone seems to be planning out a venture to distant lands for spiritual indulgence.

2.The setting of springtime provides a symbol of rebirth and fresh beginnings which seems appropriate for a story based on a religious journey. Descriptions of the clothing each character is wearing serves as a symbol of the kind of person these characters are and what may lay under their external physique. Such as the squires chose of the huge floral broche indicates his inexperienced vanity or the wife’s chose of red garments expresses her freedom of sexuality. The physical features of each character play a part in distinguishing their personality’s as well. An example of this would be the Summoner’s disgusting appearance correlates with his horrible personality.

3.The Wife of Bath is very rich in taste. Her clothing is described as extravert with scarlet stocking and leather shoes. The form and fit of the clothing shows her talent as a seamstress and how profitable it has been for her. One can also see from her character that she is very smart in a commonsense kind of way. Through her experiences with men, she has learned how to provide for herself in a world where women had little power. She uses her body as a bargaining tool to control the men in her life to get what she wants since society at the time wouldn’t allow her to do it herself. The Summoner is depicted as a disgusting person.

His physical appearance can be described as a face covered in pustules framed by bushy eyebrows and narrow, deep set eyes. The outwear appearance of his being is frightening to many and his breath even more grotesque then his face. He is dishonest, manipulative, and simply unethical. His actions speak this louder than even his appearance. Since his profession is an officer of the church, he can bring just about anyone to trial for spiritual crimes. This brings him a great power over ordinary people. Though since the Summoner is an unethical man, he allows people to pay him bribes to get out of their crimes. His motivations are nothing but filled with greed and lies.

4.Chaucer’s form of satire is used to point out and make fun of the corrupt Clergy men and women. This shows two different images to the reader, one which is true and the other which is made up. Examples of this satire can directly be shown by the characters of the friar and monk. The friar tries to convince people that he is a good holy man. That the only reason he collects money is to save people from all the sins they’ve have committed. Though in truth the fryer doesn’t believe any of this and just collect the money for his own well-being. The monk to believe he is above the holy law as he disregards the rules of his monastery because it doesn’t fit his lifestyle. In conclusion the reader can see that the basis of Chaucer’s satire is based upon his disapproval of the church. The Wife of Bath’s Tale

1.A young knight is driven by lust and commits a crime of rape on a young maiden. The citizens of the town are repulsed by the knight’s behavior and demand justice. Although the law demands that the knight be beheaded, the queen and ladies of the court beg to be allowed to determine the knight’s fate. The queen decides to allow the knight to live if he discovers what women most desire. He is given a year to do this and at the very last minute makes a deal with an old hag to have it. He learns through the answer to his quest and marriage to the hag that what women desire most is control over their husbands

2.After the queen spares the knights life, the hag asks the knight to marry her in front of everyone at the kingdom. The knight begs her to take one of his material possession instead of his body but she refuses and they he is forced to wed. After the wedding ordeal, the knight is at a dilemma within himself. Part of him wishes that he would have never agreed to the hag’s deal and just accepted his fate but the other part is happy to be alive but miserable at the thinking of spending the rest of his life with an ugly hag. After seeing her husband miserable, she offers the knight a choice: either he can have her be ugly but loyal and good, or he can have her young and fair but also unfaithful. The dilemma here is based on if the knight wants a pretty wife or a good wife, which he ultimately lets his new wife decide.

3.The old hag reminds him that true nobility of character upon what looks like but rather how they treat others and themselves. Looks are only part of the full picture of a person. It’s hard to find someone who has that picture full on both sides of personality and looks. She states he must choose between the two. It boils down to if the knight wants to live in a fake fantasy world where he has a perfectly pretty women that’s unfaithful or cold. Or live in the real world where he has a loving and faithful wife that has her flaws in looks. In the end she lets him chose her fate as an old ugly hag that is a loyal and true or a beautiful woman who is unfaithful and cold.

4.Because the Knight knows the hag to choose whatever she wants from the decision, he is given her what she truly wanted, power over her husband. She then transforms into a beautiful and good wife to the knight. The two have a long, happy marriage, and the woman stays a good wife to her husband. The Wife gets a husband who she has control over and the husband gets a beautiful, loyal wife. He will be able to grow old with her and live a his life to the full extent.

5.The Wife of Bath uses the prologue to explain that what women most desire is complete control over their husbands. Because she has had five husbands, the Wife feels that she can speak with authority from this experience, and, in the prologue, she tells how she got the upper hand with each of them. The tale carries this basic thesis that what women truly want is control in their lives. The tale relates to the wife of bath’s own experience with her fifth husband who is twenty years younger than she is. The narrator tells the story about an old hag who gains control over her youthful husband. This directly correlates with what happened to her in her own life. In the choice the hag offers the knight, both choices seem intolerable. Thus, when he lets her make the decision, he hand over the control to her turning the medieval world-picture completely around. Just as the Wife did in real life with the faking of her death to scare her husband into obedience. The Nun’s Priests Tale

1.This type of story is referred to as a beast fable in which animals act like human beings. To suggest that animals behave like humans is to suggest that humans often behave like animals. The story showcases an ironic contrast between the barnyard and the real world. This contrast is comments on human nature, made clear when Don Russel praises Chaunticleer to sing, and the flattery blinds Chaunticleer to the treachery. Here, shows how flattery can lead to treachery. Chaunticleer’s escapes because of his clever use of flattery. Don Russel learns that he should not babble or listen to flattery when it is better to keep quiet. Chaunticleer, in the end, learns that flattery and pride should not be in excess.

2.Chanticleer has a nightmare about an orange beast who threatens to kill him while he is in the yard. Pertelote makes fun of him for letting a dream get the better of him. She believes the dream to be the result of constipation, and she promises him that she will find his a proper laxative for it. She urges him once more not to dread something as imaginary as a dream. To convince her that his dream was important, he tells the story of traveling men who had to separate and one dreamed of the others murder and then discovered it was true. His point in telling these stories is to prove to Pertelote that murder will reveal itself, even and especially in dreams.

3.When Chanticleer notices the fox, he confronts him with flattery for his singing. Chanticleer relishes this flattery. He lets his guard down and the fox reaches out and grabs him by the throat, and then slinks away back toward the woods. Chanticleer outsmarts the fox by cleverly suggesting the fox turn and boast to his pursuers. The fox opens his mouth to do so, and Chanticleer flies out of the fox’s mouth and into a high tree. The fox tries to flatter the bird into coming down, but Chanticleer has learned his lesson. He tells the fox that flattery will work for him no more. Thus, the roaster learns to become humble and the fox learns to never to trust a flatterer.

4.This story of satire compares human nature to being animalistic. He describes people as acting more on instinct rather than thought. Thus, he tells the story of excessive pride through the use of the animals as they don’t seem to be able separate rational thinking with instinct. Everything they say cannot be taken seriously because they are not perceived as rational beings.

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