The Wife of Baths Reflexive Contradiction for Sexual...

The Wife of Baths Reflexive Contradiction for Sexual Equality in the Canterbury Tales The Wife of Bath has been described and depicted as an independent proto-feminist who long ago led the charge for sexual equality. Chaucers visionary protagonist was a refreshing and modern look at womens rights in the fifteenth century. She spends much of her prologue breaking down stereotypical barriers that have confined women of her time to passive and subservient roles in her society. As a result, her prologue, if standing alone, can be noted as one of the great calls for female independence in historical literature. But upon viewing her works as a whole, her section of the General Prologue, her prologue and her tale, it is well noted that†¦show more content†¦He then strikes back in a most unchivalrous and demeaning response. This knyght answerde, allas! and weylawey! / I woot right wel that swich was my biheste. / For goddes love, as chees a newe requeste! / Taak al my good, and lat my body go, (1064-7). To supposedly be living by a code of honor, the knights sharp words are an attempt to break out of his bond. I only emphasize them to express the sheer lack of respect and appreciativeness he has for his savior. After she humbly replies that all she wants is his love above all the wealth in the world, he starkly fires back in shock, My love . . . Nay my dampnacioun! (1073). He continues to spout off lines of rejection; digging himself into a deeper hole with the woman he has already sworn indirectly to marry. The story continues with a description of the sadness around the day of the marriage, all the while opposing the Wifes former views that a womens value lies less in her appearance and more in her performance in bed, that beauty is hardly an important factor in determining a womans value. Yet, the knight strongly rejects her merely on her lack of beauty. Whether the hag is simply desperate or confused is undetermined, but she gives in to the kni ghts lack of supposedly ingrained chivalry by letting him off with a light lecture on true nobility. Her quaint address is surmised by the simple statement, I shal fufille youre worldly