The Selfish Hedonist

Ill ready a husband yet / who shall be both my debtor and my break nonpareils back / for mine shall be the agency all his bearing (Chaucer 262). In The Canterbury Tales, the married wo creation of john, also known as Alison, prefaces herself as the confidence on coupling and marital life. She com ments on the social and legal position of women in nuptials and daily life. She claims she has her knowledge from experience, not from scriptural authority. She dictates her life story of her louver previous relationships with her fellow pilgrims to show her experience.Rather than rejecting scriptural authority, she appeals to logic and so rejecting too strict interpretations of scriptural rules and commandments. She ca-cas ridiculous details of her marriages, including her marrying aged blind drunk men so that she could get their money once they died. After impressive the unreasonable details of her relationships, she goes on to tell a tale or so an old hag and one of Kin g Arthurs bucks. The old hag forces the knight to marry her afterwards she helps him with a life-saving question of What do women most want in life? The wife of bathtub attempts to portray the idealness of a womans command in the end yet she fails because the old hag becomes passive again. by means of the married woman of bathing tubs Prologue and Tale in The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer portrays the married woman of Bath as a selfish hedonist and feminist toilsome to gain complete move everyplace men. Her new stand on womens supremacy scarce shows her selfishness because she wasnt assay to make a difference or revolutionize anything, she was just when trying to gain personal benefits. The wife of Baths prologue is used to explain the basis of her theories on authority and s everywhereeignty.The medieval Church at the beat of the Wife of Bath saw her as a wicked woman, and she boasts about it with pride If I turn difficult, God give me sorrow (262). Her mar rying three old men in succession is a violation of not only of the practice of law of common mformer(a) wit but even of the law of Nature, who would bring unneurotic those of comparable age (Oberembt 288). Marrying another man after already being married previously is already a scandalous crime for this time period. Now to marry someone much older than herself a hardly a(prenominal) times in a row is wrong not only in the eyes of God, but it is wrong along the lines of common sense too.The text of the Wife of Baths Prologue is based on an allegorical confession in which she tells her sins to her auditory modality in her life story O Lord, I wrecked their pink of my John / innocent they were, without remorse (Chaucer 268). She confesses to deceiving and tricking her husbands just so she could get money and admits to govern a fifth marriage while still in her fourth. In doing so, she demoralizes herself to try to be better than a man. Having more power than a man means she g ets to decide, yet she goes and ruins her own reputation just so she can welcome an edge over men.Her rebellion against patriarchal authority and the abusive treatment of particular men distilled by the Wife of Bath are really but the projections of her selfish attitude His pleasures were my profit, I concurred (269). She does not care about anyone but herself and she chooses to display that willingly. She has a egocentric interpretation of the marriage. Oberembt uses the blood line that she was only twelve years old in her number one marriage and that she was unable to conceive a child with her first husband which couldve lead to her frustration (Oberembt 288).Through her words, and mostly through her actions, the Wife of Bath expresses her views on a wifes domination through her own life story. The Wife of Baths Tale is an exemplum, providing an answer to the question, What do women want? Chaucer uses the Wife of Bath to explain and give an example that women most desire sov ereignty A woman wants the self-same sovereignty / over her husband (Chaucer 186). The tale is Alisons idea of the holy illustration of her point. The Knight gives in to his new old wife and hence she becomes beautiful in his eyes because she has now been given the right to choose. merely if one was to switch the roles of men and women in society, men would become a very meek and uncertain group of people who wouldnt know how to behave. so the Wife of Bath comically inverted the conventional sex-linked priapic and feminine behaviors (Oberembt 300). When the Knight of King Arthur lets the old hag make the finish, he abandoned the males sovereignty in favor of the womans rule My dearest wife / I leave the matter to your wise decision (Chaucer 291). The Wife of Bath most apt(predicate) sees her story as what she wishes would happen normally. only if by her story, shes not changing anything or large-minded examples on how to assortment the present ways because no man is going t o willingly give up his sovereignty only to have his wife rule over him. The Wife of Bath is an early extreme feminist who believed in women having the most power and command over their husbands You make the choice yourself (291). Through the Old Hag, razz Alice persuades an unreasonable male chauvinist to renounce self-indulgence and to accept the only reasonable norm for human conduct (Oberembt 300). She is the only person who believes that a womans domination will make everyone happy.But on the mans side of the story, he is forced to give up his masculinity and become sensual only so that his wife can now become masculine. In the Wife of Baths Tale, she attempts to convey her message that women want domination, yet with closer analysis one sees that her ideas do not seem to work out well. Chaucer seems to have make the relationship of the tale and the teller to force one to consider Alisons argument of domination. The argument in contrast to this belief is the idea that the Alis on just wants a mutual relationship, one that is of giving and receiving His pleasures were my profit, I concurred (Chaucer 269).If the Wife of Bath is telltale(a) us that marriage is all about having sex with your spouse just so that they could give you fancy things and money in return, there is no sign of a revolutionary idea. McKinley states that individually spouses body becomes the property of the other by virtue of the new marital alliance (371). If this is the case, then the gibe has the right to each other and the right to have sex with each other and there shouldnt be any type of give and consent mentality. In the end of the tale, the old hag relinquishes her power and never really becomes the dominant of the two And have I won the mastery? verbalise she (Chaucer 291). She becomes a passive wife when she gives up her power by giving the knight what he wants.This is because the knight gives her the choice to choose and it seems as though she now has complete get a line , yet she gives up her power when he wants to have sex with her and she resigns his power and listens to him. The Wife of Baths Tale ultimately contradicts Alisons belief of female domination in that the woman never gains domination over the man My dearest wife / I leave the matter to your wise decision Sir, Do with my life and Death as you think best (291). The manner of speaking and acts of self-sacrifice, obedience, and submission seem to suggest the very antithesis of self-actualizing, assertive behavior which feminism and Alison has championed (McKinley 373). Throughout the Wife of Baths Prologue, Alison stands strong to the idea that women should have complete control over their husbands. bingle might think that the tale she would tell contains aid to her ideas, but it does not. For in the end, Chaucer shows us that the Wife of Baths idea of domination wouldnt work because she would eventually give her power up again only after just receiving it.Therefore, Chaucer depic ts Alison as a selfish woman who wants authority over her husband and yet in the end he shows how her ideas would never work. One must come to the conclusion that the Wife of Bath only tries to express her belief in a wifes complete supremacy over their husbands. In the Wife of Baths Prologue, Alison uses her experience to verify her theories on a wifes supremacy. She also uses scriptural examples to support her ideas, such as previous Biblical characters that had multiple spouses. But her life story is evidence to her views and without her personal input one would extol whether or not her beliefs really would work.In the Wife of Baths Tale, Alison most likely sees her story as what she wishes would happen normally. But with a closer facial expression at the details, shes not changing anything or giving examples on how to change the present ways because no man is going to willingly give up his sovereignty only to have his wife rule over him. Also, the tale ultimately proves Alison wrong because the old hag becomes passive in the end after being given the control. Alison proves her theory wouldnt work, and Chaucer tries to explain why a womans superiority wouldnt work too well through the old hag and her decision to give into the knights request of sex.