Kahse
Mandarino
Mr.
O’Brien
British
Literature
6
November 2013
I Love You, I Love You Not
In the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer expresses many
lessons of social satire, particularly on marriage. The “Wife of Bath’s Tale”
discusses virginity, marriage, and sovereignty of couples in marriage. Chaucer
poses the question, what does a woman want most in marriage? Chaucer delves
further into this question with an interesting and ironic story. Through the
“Wife of Bath’s Tale”, Chaucer provides the reader a description of what
happens in today’s society. The story may seem a bit exaggerated, but the
exaggeration enhances Chaucer’s point that hypocrisies and abuses of power in
marriage will be present now and in the future to come.
The “Wife
of Bath’s Tale” reveals a bitter truth that most people often marry solely
based off of appearance. This causes people to marry too young, marry for the
wrong purpose, and becoming miserable in the future. Especially when marrying
too young, teenagers tend to change their opinions. The Wife of Bath says,
“Young, strong, and stubborn, I was full of rage and jolly as a mag pie in a
cage” (270). This quote explains perfectly how certain notions on life change
as someone gets older. Another example of change of heart is when the king
finds out that, “some said that women wanted wealth and treasure, ‘Honour’ said
some, some ‘Jolly and pleasure,’ some ‘Gorgeous clothes’…”(283). The king
cannot find a consistent answer because so many women are different, especially
older women versus younger women. During the book’s time period, the man
dominated marriage. Woman had little to no say in the relationship. Chaucer’s
lesson to the story in the “Wife of Bath’s Tale” is for an average man to
answer the question of, what does woman wants most in marriage? The answer is
to let the women have control.
In the
“Wife of Bath’s Tale”, Chaucer not only analyzes the men’s fault to marriage,
as previously explained, but he also views the women’s faults. In the tale, the
Wife begins to explain why she married five times. She believes that marrying
many times shouldn’t be frown upon. The Wife believes that, “God bade us all to
wax and multiply… Then why not marry to or even eight?” (259). The Wife defends
this argument by stating that there are two types of women, those who are meant
to by fruitful, and perfect women. Virginity is perfection in through her eyes,
therefore, those that are perfect should remain virgin. Those that are not
perfect, like herself, must multiply in order to make more virgins. In general,
Chaucer alludes to different stances on marriage. One side is where marriage
should be equal and shared between couples. As long as that is done, the couple
will live a long and cheerful life together. The second side is where God wants
some women to be fruitful and make perfect virgins. Chaucer is able to accurately
explain two sides of marriage in great depth. His views on marriage do not just
pertain to the books time, but also in society today.
Today’s
trends of marriage are very similar to what Chaucer writes in his stories. In
today’s society, everything is moving at a fast pace. This causes people to
judge based off of appearance, without taking the time to get to know the
personality of the person. If Chaucer were alive today, I believe he would not be
surprised that many people marry based off the looks of the other. According to
Anita Yok Sim Ho from the Huffington Post, part
of the reason why the divorce rate is so high is because people
do not take the time to deeply listen to their significant other before responding. People tend to think
impulsively. If the person looks does not immediately grab the attention of
others, then people are less likely to be attracted to the other. Chaucer
explains that marriages will be unhappy if the relationship is mainly one
sided. Anita also agrees with Chaucer by saying putting heavy responsibility on another human being to make
you happy all the time is unrealistic and unfair. Marriage was one sided during
Chaucer’s time, but in today’s society, women are very have equal opportunities
as men. Chaucer’s point of woman wants control in marriage is becoming truer in
society today. Women have more rights and freedom then when they did nearly seven
hundred years ago. Even though some marriages today are completely male
dominated, it is often frown upon in today’s society. Stacey Vanek Smith,
author for the New York Times, believes that marriage in the present is more
about wealth. In the article, research
shows that money is the number one reason couples fight and a main reason
marriages split up. In the article, Stacey Smith interviews a student of social
research named Terri Orbuch. Dr. Orbuch mentions, “In our society, money is a really taboo subject, almost
like sex,” she said. “In fact, I think money is even more taboo, because these
days friends talk about sex, but we don’t usually know how much our friends
make.” Chaucer makes references to money in the Wife of Bath’s tale,
particularly when the king was asking women what they want most in marriage. Wealth
is a big factor for many when deciding to marry. Chaucer would despise this
notion, he believes that marriage should be purely love, not material desire.
Much of what Chaucer ridiculed in
the “Wife of Bath’s Tale”, is true in today’s society. Even though Chaucer explains
marriage much throughout the “Wife of Bath’s tale”, it is hard to figure out
what his stance is. Chaucer was married once and had two kids, but it is hard
to deduce that his marriage was happy or miserable. In general, I believe Chaucer
looks at marriage in two ways. One way is where a man dominates the marriage.
The other is where the woman dominates marriage. Through analyzing the text in
the Canterbury Tales, and present day
information on marriage, it is easy to deduced that Chaucer overall message is
that marriage is positive, as long as both partners are equal, loyal, and
loving.
Works Cited
12, June. "Mayor Feels a `sense of Failure' in Marital
Split." Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, 12 June 2007.
Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
Mallon, Bridget. "Marriage Mistakes That Lead To
Divorce." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 26 Aug.
2013. Web. 06 Nov. 2013.
Smith, Stacy V. "Money Talk Before Marriage a Tip You Can’t
Disparage." The New York Times. N.p., 25 Mar. 2013. Web. 6
Nov. 2013.
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