Love 'em and leave 'em

In the last few weeks I've really struggled to find a topic I felt strongly about. Yeah, I think the Wife of Bath is interesting, but honestly, she's really said it all already. I didn't feel like I had anything to add. It wasn't until I read her story that I found myself with something to say.

I was already familiar with the story she told. I don't remember reading it, but I must have, most likely when I was a lot younger. I'm pretty sure that in the version I read the same woman who was raped at the beginning is the one the knight ends up marrying. The story Chaucer tells us doesn't specify, but it seems to me like the sort of thing he'd mention. “And whan the knight saugh verraily al this, / That she so fair was and so yong thereto” (1250-1251), “oh, and she was the same woman he wanted so badly in the beginning of the story,” Chaucer never said.

So what happened to her? Obviously, she got justice, of a sort at least. We never know if the queen's solution was acceptable to her or if she would rather have seen his head roll. Sadly, this is a prime example of the unconscious and unintentional sexism rampant throughout many cultures and eras; she showed up, got raped, and that was all the storyteller needed from her. Of course, perhaps she preferred to fade into obscurity.

However, life had to have been hard for her after this. Obviously, the stories of King Arthur's court, as well as his idealized system of laws and governance, are either a fictional tale or a highly romanticized and exaggerated story, so we don't know what protections might have existed for her. However, there are still areas of the world today where a woman who has been raped will be charged with adultery. Even if she was protected, as seems likely under Arthur's fair laws, she had to have suffered some ostracization. Human nature is consistent enough that you know someone would have blamed the victim.

I think that, as a young woman, clearly unmarried since she was a “mayde,” this event would have been an impediment to finding a good marriage. Really, since the knight got away with his life, I really think the least he could have done would be to give her a rich dowry to offset the damage he did. He was certainly happy to offer all his worldly possessions to the old woman to avoid marrying her.

The blame here could be placed on the knight, persisting in his selfishness, but it could also be placed on whoever originally told this story. I'd love to know what you think.

Sex as a Weapon: Is It Really So Wrong?

I've noticed a lot of people who have an issue with the Wife of Bath tend to either have an issue with her weaponizing sex or her tolerance of domestic violence. Instead of writing a blog post about the obvious wrongs of domestic abuse, I decided to take on the task of trying to argue how weaponizing sex really isn't all that bad.

Ok, let me kick this thing off by saying that, believe it or not, sex is used as a weapon in both modern media and modern society (shocker! I know. *insert sarcastic eyeroll*). In many beloved movies that usually feature a woman starting from the bottom (thanks, Drake) and ending up at the top, sex is usually featured. Of course, each movie is different, so of course sex isn't always used in the same way, so let me get more specific.

Let's take a look at one of America's most beloved films, featuring America's sweetheart: Julia Roberts, Pretty Woman.

Basically, if you haven't seen this movie (and I don't understand why you wouldn't have by now), it's about a prostitute who is whisked off her leather boot wearing feet by some rich big wig in a limo. No, he doesn't hire her into a low entry position and she sleeps her way to the top. In fact, he takes he takes her in to be his escort for social events. They inevidably fall in love, but what happens after she sleeps with him? She becomes his girlfriend! Shocker! No.

Anyways, in addition to gaining a new man, this lucky lady of the evening also gains a wealthy buisness man who will listen to all of her crazy buisness ideas. Talk about having your cake and eating it to. All the creative license you could ever want with none of the backlash if it all falls to shit? Sign me up!

I really don't expect all of you to accept my crazy conspiracy theory about Pretty Woman, but consider this: has your mother/stepmother/father's girlfriend/father's boyfriend ever made your father/stepfather/mother's boyfriend/mother's girlfriend sleep on the couch as punishment?

Honestly, like, what do you think she's/he's doing there?

And also, for all of you sexually active and/or people in a relationship, after getting into an arguement or if your partner is doing something that you don't agree with, are you going to hop straight in the sack with them? I would hope not because, well, whether or not you realize it, you would be condoning their bad behavior. In order to get your point across, you start taking away things they like to do with you (including the big nasty!).

Now, using sex outside of the walls of a relationship is very underhanded and lazy in modern standards, but that's all women had at their disposal during Chaucer's time. Women typically weren't taught to read and write and weren't sent off to fancy dancy universities to better their lives.  They were born to become breeders for whatever gentleman their parents chose for them.

So, once again, my hat goes off to Chaucer for generating one of the first feminist pieces of his time.

The Wife's Tale: What Does it Say About the Wife?

So basically what the Wife's tale says about her is that she herself wants to control her husbands, which is pretty self-explanatory because that's what she does. When the knight first sets out and asks women what they most desire in a man, however, they all say a lot of different things. I don't think that all women only want to control their man in life, at least I hope not. In the time The Canterbury Tales were written, maybe, deep down, but all of those women the knight first went to chose to answer with something else other than power over their husbands.

What the Wife is saying, which reflects more about her character and the time in which The Canterbury Tales were written, is that not all women want to control their husbands; she's saying that all women should control their husbands.

The Wife of Bath is an awesome character, especially set against the misogyny of the time in which the Canterbury Tales were written. She is in full control of her power over the men of the time. But, in the end of the story, the rapist knight is rewarded with a beautiful wife simply because he let her choose for herself whether she wanted to be ugly and loving or beautiful and unfaithful; and however great their relationship turns out, the wife still remains obedient to her husband. Personally, I had this feeling that the knight didn't learn anything, and let his wife choose for herself simply because he knew then that that was what she wanted to hear. It makes you wonder why the Wife chose to end the story this way, the knight seeming to prevail and all. Sure, maybe the knight learned something, but he's still a piece of crap. The Wife's praying to Jesus in the end solidifies the message she's trying to send, but why would the story she tells end with the knight, who's by all rights a scumbag, married to a beautiful, obedient wife? That was the part of the Wife's tale that I didn't understand and didn't really sit right with me. So yeahh. Leave comments and stuff if you have any idea why the rapist knight gets to have a happy ending.

What Women Want

The wife of Bath was a progressive character in Chaucer's time and continues to be, in some circles, here in modernity. She is strong, decisive and can be abrasive. She knows what she wants and has a plan to get it. While she has a tendency to rub people the wrong way with her brash behavior and general air of impropriety, she may be the first literary advocate of marriage as an equal partnership. And that, in my opinion, is what Chaucer is saying women want.

In her prologue as well as her tale, the Wife describes situations in which women place themselves in a position of power over the men in their lives and in both instances the women choose to be "kinde" to their husbands. They choose to fulfill their half of the marriage agreement on equal, loving terms, but only after eerily similar capitulations from Jankins and the knight. While Jankins implores "Myn owene trewe wyf, do as thee lust the terme of al thy lyf," the knight tells his bride "my lady and my love...I pit me in your wyse governance: chooseth youreself which may be most pleasance." The Wife of Bath and her character just want validation as human beings and a marriage partnership. Really isn't that what we all want?

Although I think it would have been hilarious for the knight to have to wax his legs like Mel Gibson...

Wife of Bath's Tale in the Medieval Time Period and the World Today!

So I absolutely love the "Wife of Bath's Tale"!!! I honestly think she's the best character in the book! However, I loved how the knight went on a quest to answer the question "what is it that women most desire?" This was very interesting because it was as if the Wife of Bath placed a male in a women's shoes. I say this because the knight went on a quest to answer this question, and he received many different answers. It was very hard for him to interpret what it was that women most desired. I believe the Wife of Bath wanted men to realize women want all of these things: love, affection, honestly, adornment, jolliness, freedom, and more that is why she told this tale.  In my opinion, this tale was made for men to understand what they must do for their significant others. Women do not want to be controlled by men, they would like to have control over themselves. However, Wife of Bath's Tale made me realize that these things were very hard for women to have. According to Beowulf, women did not have a name they were simply just called "daughter". So it made me think, why exactly would men care about what these women "desire" On the other hand, Chaucer must feel that women are somewhat important because he took the time out to put the "Wife of Bath's Tale" in Canterbury Tales.
Next, I am very curious to find out if women ever received these things (love, adornment, pleasure, freedom, etc.) in the medieval time period, because some women don't even receive these things in the world today. If you think about it, women still want love, adornment, jolliness, and honesty. I find this really weird that this took place in the medieval time period and it is now 2013! There is still some type of comparison that can be made!

Men are wicked and still have happy endings

We were asked if "The Wife of Bath's Tale" was depicts the wickedness of men, and I think it does. However, I think the tale doesn't show women in the best light, either.
The tale starts with a knight raping a woman. I think that is proof enough as to why this tale describes the wickedness of men. Chaucer writes that "By verray force he rafte hire maydenheed" (122, 888). He's a knight for crying out loud! Shouldn't it be easy for him to find a wife that is willing to have sex with him? Does he really have to go out and rape women because he is so overcome by their beauty? He should be locked up. But does that happen? No. King Arthur's wife decides to give him a chance to redeem himself. How one redeems themself from rape is beyond me, but here we are. I think this is a very poor decision. She's a woman; shouldn't she of all people be angered by the knight's actions? Instead of agreeing with King Arthur's decision to behead the knight, she lets him go across the country. This just gives him ample opportunity to rape more women. Which he doesn't, but he very well could have. I think that option should not have been given to him, and that is why I enjoyed the prologue more than the tale itself.
Unfortunately for the lucky rapist knight, all the women he talks to tell him different things they want. Some want money, some want nice clothes, and others want to be pleasured sexually. Is it just me, or does that seem like a good opportunity to have consensual sex instead of raping unsuspected women?
When he finally does find the right answer, he gets to keep his head. But alas! He is forced to marry a hideous woman because she saved his life by telling him what the queen wanted to hear. However, the rapist knight's luck has not run out because the ugly old woman turns into a beautiful young lady. Justice has been served.
Personally, I just do not understand this tale. Sure, the knight tells his wife, "I put me in youre wyse governance" (130, 1231), which what all women want, but is that really enough to pardon him from rape? I probably just can't get behind this tale because times are so different today. However, I think at the very least he should have been stuck with an ugly wife. Why does he get a happy ending when the woman he raped has to live with that forever?

Fifteenth Century Problems

 I have read the Wife of Bath story before, and I have to say I did not like it any better after reading it for a second time. I think the problem is that I keep comparing what I would want most as a woman, and what this story claims woman want most; the answers could not be further apart. The bottom line that I gathered from this tale was that woman ultimately desire power over their husbands, just as the Wife herself boasted of having over her five husbands. Maybe I find it so hard to connect with is because it was written in a different time period where woman did not have as much of a choice as they do now? But even so, I would hope that if I had to live during that time period I would have wanted to be equal to my husband, or as equal as I could have been, rather than wanting to outwit and control him.

Also, I wanted to talk about the end of the story and how it was annoying that the guy got to have a beautiful and kind wife just because he gave her a choice. "My lady and my love, and wyf so dere, I put me in youre wyse governance: Cheseth youreself which may be most pleasance." (1236-1238) In the real world you get what you get; we can only change by improving ourselves, or resorting to plastic surgery. We can’t just be beautiful by willing it to happen. I know this is fiction of course; it just annoyed me because that part was not applicable to life today for me.