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Sex and the Wife of Bath Sexual relations between men and woman have created issues of life and death from the beginning of time. In most classic Western beliefs it began when Eve with the help of the Devil seduced Adam thus leading the downfall of humanity into an abyss of sin and hopelessness. This issue arises in all literature from Genesis, Chaucer and into modern day. Authors, clerks and writers of all types have aided stereotyping women throughout history and Geoffrey Chaucer is not an exception in most cases. However, in Chaucer's Wife of Bath we can find the beginnings of a new type of woman arising from the dark ages of the post-Roman era. And of course at the center of his character's struggle is sex. As this topic develops, we shall take a brief look into sex, women, the Middle Ages and Chaucer's Wife of Bath as an example of Middle Ages reflections. Women and sex in the Middle Ages The woman of the Middle Ages tended to be pawns of men in religion, politics and economics (Gies). "Although a woman could Josh Kinman 2 hold land, inherit it, sell it or give it away and plead for it in law courts, most of a woman's life was spent under the guardian ship of a man" (Gies 41). These set standards for the dominance of men duri
As a result she punished him by throwing a book of his into a fire, revealing a nature of woman as a punisher and a lawmaker. These beliefs no doubt were ridiculous attempts to discredit women so the power of men could be upheld throughout the nations, in this case Great Britain. The Wife of Bath She is a plump, florid, jolly, bold, lusty and voluptuous woman. It enabled a projection of male sexual guilt onto an un-empowered other, woman. Josh Kinman 7 Works cited Chaucer, Geoffrey. She is not a typical woman of the Middle Ages and therefor poses a threat to mean and the current social order. Women are depicted as untrustworthy and tempter of men. The Canterbury Tales: A Literary Pilgrimage. In one case a woman brought a man before the courts on rape charges. Her tale thus unfolds as anti-feminist cliche: all women want to be raped (Williams 67). She is a valuable woman by any means because of her apparent wealth.
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