The+Wife+of+Bath

= __**The Wife of Bath**__ = One of two female storytellers, the Wife has a lot of experience under her belt. She has traveled all over the world on pilgrimages. Not only has she seen many lands, she has lived with five husbands. She is worldly in both senses of the word: she has seen the world and has experience in the ways of the world, that is, in love and sex. Rich and tasteful, the Wife’s clothes are very extravagant: her face is wreathed in heavy cloth, her stockings are a fine scarlet color, and the leather on her shoes is soft, fresh, and brand new—all of which demonstrate how wealthy she has become. Scarlet was a particularly costly dye, since it was made from individual red beetles found only in some parts of the world. The fact that she hails from Bath, a major English cloth-making town in the Middle Ages, is reflected in both her talent as a seamstress and her stylish garments. Bath at this time was fighting for a place among the great European exporters of cloth, which were mostly in the Netherlands and Belgium. So the fact that the Wife’s sewing surpasses that of the cloth makers of “Ipres and of Gaunt” speaks well of Bath’s attempt to outdo its overseas competitors.



=Physical Attributes= The Wife is not beautiful, but forceful and vivacious. Her bright clothes and elaborate head-dress are ostentatious rather than elegant: her hats are very broad and her clothes are of good quality. Her shoes are "moiste and newe": the effect is perhaps to advertise herself and her wealth, rather than attempt uncharacteristic finesse.

=**Social standing and Personality traits**= The Wife of Bath is a very interesting character. The Wife of Bath is a feminist before her time. She is opinionated, strong-willed, and charismatic. She is confident and she does not give in to male-driven society. She has been married 5 times and is hunting for her 6th husband. She is a no-nonsense kind of gal and she knows what she wants and she goes out and gets it. She is determined and motivated! Her marriages actually reveal a lot about her that is not positive. She manipulates the men she has been married to and extorts money from them in some cases. She uses her physical attributes to get what she wants, as well. She realizes the power of that and takes full advantage of it. She seems to be marrying for the wrong reasons. She might be desperately searching to find that one "true" love and simply compensates by marrying too quickly with the hopes she can change them.

=Occupation= Though she is a seamstress by occupation, she seems to be a professional wife. She has been married five times and had many other affairs in her youth, making her well-practiced in the art of love. Today, the Wife of Bath could obtain any number of odd jobs such as hemming clothes, altering dresses, repairing shoes, and any other possition that has to do with clothing. During the Medieval Period, most seamstresses were simply wives of men. They repaired their husband's clothing and taught their daughters to do the same so that they can be good wives for their future husbands. = Chaucer's Opinion = Chaucer approves the Wife of Bath because he makes her the strongest female character within the __Canterbury Tales__, and both her prologue and the actual tale show how she regards the relationships between the genders. The Wife of Bath herself is an independent, materialistic character, as she amply demonstrates in the prologue to her tale. She uses personal experience as well as religion to justify both her numerous marriages and her active sexuality.