essay on wife of bath
...e is an anti-feminist. One reason the wife of Bath cannot be considered a feminist is the methods she uses in taking control of her marriages. She uses her body to gain what she wants from her first three elderly husbands. The wife of Bath says that she has the power over her husband's body and not him. By withholding sex from her husbands, she is able to become the dominant one in the marriage. The use of her body to take power away from her husbands is not a feministic trait in the Wife of Bath; it is just a manipulative trait. The manner in which she treats her husbands is another reason the wife of Bath should not be called feminist. Women, who are obedient to their husbands and do what they want, receive trinkets and such. The wife of Bath reverses that role. When the husbands do what the wife of Bath wants, she rewards them with sex. A feminist wants to be treated as a man's equal, not put them in the same situation that the women were in. Finally, the wife of Bath has been married five times, and will "welcome the sixte whan that evere he shall (51)." She is repeatedly putting herself into a situation in which women who are not as manipulative as she is are dominated and controlled by their husbands. She is a talented weaver with land and money of her own and would be able to live comfortably on her own. It would also be acceptable to society at that time for her to remain...