The Wife of Bath, with the energy of her vernacular and the voracity of her sexual appetite, is one of most developed characters in "The Wife of Bath". Canterbury Tales. With 856 lines, his prologue, or “preambulacioun” as the invoker calls it, is the longest of all the pilgrims and corresponds to the general prologue but for a few lines. Clearly, Chaucer is in love with Alisoun, as he satirically plays with issues of gender and class through the wife's robust rhetoric. Scholars and students have maintained this obsession with her, and as a result, Chaucer's larger-than-life widow has been subjected to centuries of scrutiny. Indeed, she is part of the large minority among the pilgrims bound for Canterbury; apart from the fashionable Prioress, she is the only woman - although she seems in no way intimidated by the apparent inequality of numbers. It seems almost a crime to examine masculinity in its prologue and narrative, but as I hope to show, there is much to be learned about both the wife and Chaucer from this masculine presence. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay When we consider that Chaucer chose his pilgrims with painstaking precision to present a cross-section of society in the late medieval period, the small number of female travelers can be seen as a clear reminder of the patriarchal culture in which the wife existed. Nevertheless, despite Alisoun's vigorous attack on the "angry old niggers", she is the first to recognize the political ascendancy of men. His prologue is peppered with allusions to the great biblical patriarchs such as Abraham and Jacob: Behold, here is the wise king, Daun Solomon; I think he had women more than soon. (35-36) Here the Bride makes no attempt to deny Solomon's sovereignty - she even praises him as a "wise king"; her marital disputes are social and it is for this purpose that she invokes his name. It is important to note that Alisoun refers to the "old" patriarchs - not only is she willing to recognize the male monopoly on politics, but also the deep-rooted nature of their hegemony, a recognition reinforced by the setting of her story in the time of the king. Arthur?. Chaucer created a woman who, despite her fierce social ambitions, remained keenly aware of the civil order of her time. Masculinity is also clearly manifested in the scholasticism to which the wife continually refers: Saint Paul, Saint Jerome and Theophrastus. Once again, these are historical figures, and although she seeks to castrate their scholarly authority with her own experience, the mere fact that they are mentioned is an assertion of their scholarly dominance. Ironically, the grandiloquent theology of these characters is applauded as much as it is attacked: Ovid's Midas is cited for his own purposes in the tale, while Ptolemy is exalted in the prologue: Of all men he is without object, the wise astrologer, Daun Ptholome. ...(323-324) His reference to the "wise astrologer" echoes his description of Solomon as the "wise king"; it is clear that in both cases she holds their intellect in the highest esteem. Perhaps most surprising in the wife's tone is the humility that arises from her quasi-religious adoration for the man, and as these lines illustrate, there remains a certain degree of submission on Alisoun's part . Behind her verbal offensiveness lies a submissive quality in the wife, although this is not a negative trait. Only what is filled withcontradictions is alive, said Bertolt Brecht, and it is his dichotomous personality which gives him so much enthusiasm and which truly characterizes the genius of Chaucer. However, the male presence in the prologue and the tale is not limited to historical characters alone. , whose contribution is more thematic than personal. The main male elements are Alisoun's five husbands - creations we presume to be Chaucer's. The first three of them are not singled out as individuals, but the Wife informs us that they were rich and old – in the simplest terms, medireview sugar-daddys. There is nothing patriarchal about this pathetic triumvirate, and Chaucer (through the wife) presents them as entirely malleable - they are figures of fun, archetypes of what Alisoun considers a "good" husband: hond,and they made me yeven al hir lond. (211-212) The first line is a Middle English idiom for control, a modern equivalent of which might be "under my thumb." Nonetheless, it is impossible to ignore the sexual suggestion of this line, which graphically illustrates the methods the wife uses to gain "maistrie." Meanwhile, the pun "hoolly" can be interpreted as a joke about the sanctity of marriage, something Alisoun has little regard for. Here, as the reference to “lond” indicates, men are presented as the landowners: the powerful aristocracy whose ascendancy is inextricably linked to their domains. Traditionally, a wife simply became another of their possessions, but it is clear that the wife has used sexual persuasion to manipulate and subvert these conventions, when she receives their possessions. In this case, Chaucer's presentation is socially pointed and amusingly ironic: men are powerful in theory, puny in practice. Husband number four, again unnamed, but at least described as dislocated, is not so pliable. The wife describes him as a "revealer" who had a mistress, someone who one might assume was immune to Alisoun's unique manipulative methods. Yet this is not the case, and the presentation of masculinity as an easily governable force continues, while with superb ingenuity the woman feigns an affair: that in his own Greece I fried him for anger and for the jealousy of tomorrow. (487-488) This is clearly a temperamental character, whose personality so far appears in the same mold as that of the Summoner. Yet for all his wild activities, he still succumbs to his wife's sexual deceptions, and Alisoun herself confesses how much she has bent his nature: how much I twist him. The Wife savors her victory with an almost perverse enjoyment. It is even suggested that she drove him to his deathbed. Once again, Alisoun exposes autonomous masculinity as weak and feeble, and Chaucer's presentation of men maintains its consistency: despite political or physical supremacy, men retain an Achilles' heel in the form of the sexual act. However, the strength of the lines above, with the angre and the jealous voiry, highlights another aspect of masculinity: that of aggressiveness. This manifests itself both verbally and physically; the former being clearly visible in the middle confrontation between the summoner and the brother at the end of the prologue. As the brother nonchalantly ridicules the wife's waffle, the summoner bursts out in indignation: “Lo,” says the Somonour, “Goddess weapons deux!” ". What follows is a humorous feud that amounts to little more than harsh words, but comes to a head when the clergyman's seething sarcasm is countered with, I bishrewe your face - theepitome of the summoner's obvious optimism. The ease with which Harry Bailey suppresses the fight leads us to doubt whether there is any physical intent behind this aggressive language, because once again it is the lack of substance beneath the powerful front of masculinity that becomes the source fun. takes on a repressed physical form in the tale, one considerably darker than the amusing male misdemeanors of the prologue: Women can now go up and down safely. In every bush or under every tree it is noon another incubus but he... (878 -880) Here the wife demonstrates the most vindictive side of her nature, as she takes revenge for the previous interruption of the brother. At the same time, Chaucer gives himself the opportunity to make anticlerical social comments. An "incubus" is traditionally a male spirit who, according to popular belief in folklore, has sexual intercourse with sleeping maids, and this reference maintains the fairytale context of the Woman's tale. Nevertheless, the suggestion of nymphomania on the brother's part is clear. The way in which such implications are obscured by the cotton of "elf queens" and "fairies" reflects the way in which immoral vices are practiced in the seclusion of bushes or under trees - clearly, this sexual assault is repressed. As before, a clear distinction between masculine appearance and masculine reality is drawn, although rather than power concealing weakness, the brother obscures sexual degradation with religious virtue. This idea of ​​male authority and integrity being only skin deep seems to be present in the world's two leading men as well. piece: Jankin in the prologue and the junior knight (or “vigorous bachelor”) of the tale. As perpetrators of shockingly violent acts, both fail to live up to the standards expected of their position. The unnamed protagonist of the Arthurian Wife Romance is anything but chivalrous: he said a maid walked him biforn, including an anon maid, grousing his attention, by force he snatched his young daughter. (886-888) The words “force” and “rafte” are stressed and stand out clearly in iambic pentameter. Their monosyllabic nature further reinforces the stress of the words, while the harsh dental plosives within “rafte” reinforce the feeling of violence. There are no docile fairies here – Alisoun is blunt, and although she chooses not to reflect on the violation, she seems to have difficulty emphasizing the aggressiveness of the act through the vigor of the latter line. Furthermore, the expression “maugree hir heed” clearly implies a struggle. Such premeditated violence seems incongruous not only with the status of the young man, but also with the quasi-courteous nature of the story. Such rape is the antithesis of The Knight's Tale and it reminds us that we are not hearing Chaucer's view of masculinity, but that of the wife - a view that has its basis in experience. Indeed, this experience may be that of his fifth marriage to Jankin, a man who, as a former employee of Oxenford, combined scholasticism and marital commitment. One would expect such a learned man to be passive – "above" the summoner's stereotypical brutal behavior. Yet, as with brothers and knights-in-training, such expectations would be incorrect, and following Alisoun's petty vandalism to Jankin's misogynistic book about Wikked Wives, he literally beats her deaf: me listening. (794-795) The prolonged “o” sound created by “dooth,” “wood,” and “smoot” is omnipresent and resonates with the sounds of pain and despair of which the woman is clearly the victim. Here, the allusion to the lion can be seen as a kind of dichotomy..