In Wife of Bath, Chaucer presents a "loathly" lady, who provides us with an insight to the role of women in the late 14th century. As the story pans out, we learn that Wife of Bath finds sex as a hobby, and almost like an addiction, which was not a normal standard for women during that time period. Wife of Bath's sexual pleasures remind me of a more modern time because in today's society, sex has become less of an act of love and more of a hobby, or for the enjoyment. During the time period of Wife of Bath, women were supposed to be virgins until marriage, and most were - except Wife of Bath. Her acts represent many women in society today, because most don't wait until marriage, or respect themselves and stay "pure", which illustrates how the role of women and their expectations have changed over the centuries.
While reading Wife of Bath, it is also revealed that she has 5 husbands, which also illustrates a modern quality, considering that the divorce rate for our population today is extremely high, and divorce is assumed to be more acceptable and less shameful. While reading the Wife of Bath, I noticed that she had no shame in her number of husbands, nor in who she had sex with - she was a true feminist, not because she represented women in general, but because she fought for herself, and for her rights. She did not stress over the opinion of others, and tried to make a good impression on no one. In my opinion, women in our society live like the Wife of Bath. Of course, there are still stereotypes of women and standards that we're supposed to live up to, but honestly, there are so many women who don't.
The sexuality and love in Wife of Bath can somewhat be compared to ours today because some of those expectations still exist in some human perspectives, such as men wanting a virgin, or a woman who hasn't been with every guy, and women needing to be "pure", and those expectations still to this day aren't expected as much from men as they are women - quite funny huh? I think the ideas of romance and sexuality have definitely changed over time, but Wife of Bath's idea of this has never changed, and if she were still here today, she would fit right in to our modern society.
I completely agree with this post. I think that the Wife of Bath has more of a modern quality than an old fashioned. I think the fact that she slept with everyone and was obsessed with sex like you said, the fact that she had five husbands, and that she was so set on making her own decisions it made her more modern than old fashioned.
ReplyDeleteWe do make assumptions about the sexuality of ancient folk, but are our assumptions necessarily correct? This might be a rich topic for research.
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