Saturday, February 22, 2014
We, the Wife of Bath
So, I was trying to figure out how I could connect the wife of bath's story to modern day life. I couldn't think of anything but then I realized, we are no different than she is (well there are some obvious differences but you know what I mean). Sometimes, we want to be in control. It may not be all the time but it never hurts, right? Sometimes, we want to be the one wearing the pants(a lot of women wear pants). Now, looking at this through a man's point of view, this would be completely out of the question. Blasphemous! However, if you think about it, a lot of men are submissive to women nowadays. Mainly because they just want you to "shutup", or their just into that. It never hurts to be independent or to go against the status quo. Let others think what they want about how you live your life. Alison, that's the Wife of Bath's name, certainly did and she couldn't be any happier.
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I feel that the wife of bath's philosophy (Let the woman control the home/ A Happy wife is a happy life) is only intended for marriage and relationships from Chaucer's point of view, because even though the wife of bath is a very independent individual, she submits to the idea of being married. Which could seem to contradict her philosophy all together. If she really had it all she would not need man to confirm the idea, I believe Chaucer just wanted her to be seen as a completely lusty woman. This is why is every one's wife.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Chaucer certainly does go out of his way to paint her as a lusty woman. However, I would argue that she still does depict an independent woman in her own time. Although now it may seem that she is conforming to the expectation of marriage, in the time in which she exists, there were very few opportunities for a woman who remained unmarried. Maybe she is looking for a way to conform to the necessity of marriage while not submitting to a husband.
DeleteThe one connection to modern day I though of connects to what Alyssa had said in class "Having a happy wife means you have a happy life". I've noticed that in our time, especially on sitcoms or in movies men are expected to be somewhat submissive to their wives. Depending on the show or film, the submissive man may be teased for his submission or told that he should listen to his wife. And just like you stated, many of the men comply with their wive only to "shut her up". It goes to show that complete submission is never healthy whether it is for a woman to her husband or vice versa. The best thing is to compromise!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree, I think that many people, especially women, are changing the way they are supposed to be seen in society. According to some statistics I found in a news article, the number of single women has more than doubled in the past three decades. Although this is the opposite of the Wife of Bath--with her many marriages--what these women have in common is : going against the norm. In Alison's time, women were expected to marry once in their lives and become single widows after the deaths of their husbands, however, Wife of Bath remarried five times. Up until recently, women were expected to marry young and depend on their husbands for the rest of their lives, however, they are remaining single into their late 20's to educate themselves and build their careers--therefore becoming INDEPENDENT. I just think both of these types of women are awesome in being different and dealing with the talk of the town when it comes to being categorized as a "whore" or "heathen?" in the Wife of Bath's time, and for women now, having their relationship statuses broadcast in the news as if it it something so out of this world for a woman to build herself before marrying someone else.
ReplyDeleteI think Allison's freedom is more than just freedom from submission and societal roles. It is the freedom to choose. Her story is about choosing to be sexy. Choosing to be dominant. Choosing to show lust. Choosing to be a buisness woman. Choosing to be a stay at home mom. Her lesson surpasses maintaining a good marriage. She is giving women through her story the freedom to be whatever they want to be and in that case her story in some ways is even unconventional for our modern time.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you. We are in many ways similar to the Allison. It is funny, because as I am writing the comment the new Cover Girls #GirlsCan commercial came on. It really made me think that Chaucer had the right idea. In the commercial, there is Becky G, Ellen, Queen Latifa, Katey Perry, P!NK, Sofia Vergara, Janelle Monae and a Female Hockey Player (I did not catch her name). The commercial included all of there accomplishments and how they took that challenges of the oh so obvious "Girls Can't" statement and used it towards becoming who they are today.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree!!! I feel like WOB is a lot like us. She just wants freedom and it is the same for women now. We just want to to have some control over things. Although Alison wanted to be the master, it can still be compared to a woman wanting to be treated equal.
ReplyDeleteAmen to that! Jade this is great. I really agree and I think that women should be in more control of things. Men shouldn't give women control to shut them up. They should give "us" control because we are capable of being in control . The Wife of Bath really proves that. At first when reading her character I thought she was just a very promiscuous woman who maybe dated all those men for financial purposes but after rereading it , I realized that Chaucer wanted us not to focus on her number , but to focus on her relationship with her last husband. Yes her last husband was abusive but she loved him the most because he trusted her and loved her enough to give her control which is the one thing women want. Women want control and they want a choice. I am so glad that today , women are able to make choices for themselves but the fight is not over. Women are still fighting for control of their bodies and their rights to contraception. I think some politicians need to take a look at the Wife of Bath and her tale.
ReplyDeleteGreat Job Jade