Friday, April 24, 2009

Wife of Bath Prologue and Tale

Hey everyone! Sorry for blogging so late but as we all know life is crazy.
The Wife of Bath is certainly a lively one! The prologue starts with her stating she was twelve years old when she got married for the first time and then proceeded to have four more husbands. She clearly uses God's command of "Be fruitful and multiply" as a way to justify her many marriages. I thought that meant to replenish the earth with people and animals. Of course marriage is a way to replenis the earth but Wife of Bath never mentions having children. I agree with the Wife of Bath when she says there no given number for the amount of times a person can get married. During a wedding ceremony the vow is "until death do we part" and the Wife of Bath's husbands all died before she married the next. As a result no moral law has been broken. Her actions were just at a time when women were looked upon as being meek and submissive. In the prologue, theWife of Bath talks about sex in great detail. She is a woman determined to be sexually satisfied in her marriages. I like how she says that ' the least her husbands can do since she's giving up her material possessions. Too bad she has to go through all those husbands to find her true love, Jankin. And unfortunately, they had such an abusive relationshi. I believe Wife of Bath met her match with Jankin. Wife of Bath is truely out of her element. She is an assertive strong willed woman when she should be obidient and loyal to the male sex.
THE TALE
Knights are seen as rightous trustworthy men. Tis knight is neither these things. Noble men do not go around raping women. I think King Arthur is just in wanting to have the Knight killed. What I can't understand is why the queen wants to spare the knight from death. The queen has truely lost her mind. She gave the knight a year and a day to save himself from death. What's going to happen if he doesn't come back?! And what a task - find out what women want. I'm amazed the knight is actually tryingto find the answer to the queen's question.
The knight agreed to the old woman's deal without hearing what she wants in return. Not a good idea!!!! But he got the right answer. Yeah!! Unfortunately he has to wed the old ugly woman. Should have gotten all the info. to the woman's deal before agreeing to give her what she wants. The knight is so sad he's married to the old woaman. But when asked if he wants a beautiful and untrusting or old and trusting, he tells his wife "what ever she desires". I don't think he really cares at this point. He's wallowing in self pity.
The wife is beautiful and young!!! Did she turn beautiful physically of did the knight just overlook her ugliness. It is not clear what actually took place. Anyway the knight got what he wanted.
The Wife of Bath Tale was a good story. I think it was a comdy as well as suspenseful. You didn't know what would happen next.

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