Character Analysis of The Wife of Bath

             Character Analysis on the Wife of Bath
             In today's society women are independent thinkers and non-conformists. Women are encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas on issues these days. Woman have come along way from a time when they were told to conform to the ways of society and to keep their mouths shut because their opinion didn't matter. The medieval society was one time when women were treated as less than human. In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath does not conform to her society but goes against every single rule in the book. Through her many marriages and opinions on many issues of marriage we see how she thinks a society should be run.
             In The Canterbury Tales, the character of the Wife of Bath is one strong-willed, confident woman who defies the rules of society. She is described as having a bold face (Prologue 468). This shows that she is not the kind of woman that will walk around town with her head lowered to every man who walks by her. She is the kind of woman who will walk by every man with her head up, making them feel as if they should be ones lowering their heads to her. Another unconformity of the Wife of Bath is her number of husbands. In medieval society it was considered scandalous to have more than one husband, no matter if he was dead or alive. " She'd had five husbands, all at the church door..." (Prologue 470). Conformity was not at all in the vocabulary of the Wife of Bath. She was all about being an independent thinker and her own person, and there was no way of changing that. "For mine shall be the power..." (Wife's Prologue 59).
             The Wife of Bath had already had five husbands and was looking for a sixth. She was on a roll of breaking all the rules. She felt as if the rules did not apply to her and she could marry whom she wanted and as many time as she wanted. "For then, so says the Apostle, I am free/To wed...

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