The Wife of Bath :: Essays Papers

The wife of BathIn the Wife of Baths Prologue, she tells the other pilgrims that she has much companionship since she has been married five times. She believes in experience rather than in writing. We can see this in the quotation Who particolored the leon, tel me who? By God, if wommen hadden writen stories, As clerks han within hir oratories, They wolde had writen of men more wikkednesse Than al th merk of Adam may redresse. Norton, 132 She is very upset ab extinct the painting of a man killing a lion. Her twenty percent husband always reads his keep back about infernal wives, and he amuses himself by telling her the stories however, she doesnt like this. She is beautiful, hefty, supple and relies on her experience, not on any writings or paintings.To cozy up her strong and powerful appearance, she wears characteristic clothes. She puts strikingly big kerchiefs on her head, which reckon to weigh about ten pounds, and she wears scarlet red stockings. She also wears a hat, and it is as broad as a buckler. Garters hold her red stockings, and her tog are soft and new. There is a pair of sharpened spurs on her feet. This probably tells us that she has had many experiences with all husbands in her life. She wears a dogged wide skirt. Her face is as bold as her character is, white complexioned, and red. On the journey, she walks slowly and sits down easily. Overall, she has been respectable throughout her life. Chaucer also describes her as being deaf in one ear with a cleft tooth.It was very rare for a woman in the fourteenth degree Celsius to travel as a pilgrim, talk about her experiences and thoughts in man and to be married five times. The Wife of Bath is an independent and powerful woman. She strongly believes in herself and in experience rather than in create verbally authority, which are the texts written by men. She feels this way more after she marries her fifth husband. Her fifth husband always reads a book about wicked wives. He wants to control her however, she doesnt like it. Therefore she takes a page out of his book that he always reads since the book affects him badly then he hits her when he finds out about her disrespectful behavior. This is the reason for her deafness. She strongly believes she or women can write much better than men do.