Canterbury Tales

This essay compares the conceptions of marriage and love in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Prologue" and "The Franklin's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales. The problem of love seems to be timeless in its difficulties. There are many ideas and opinions concerning this delicate subject, which always is popular, along with its ability to frustrate and perplex the human animal.

During the time of Chaucer, females such as the Wife of Bath were asserting their rights against the forces of male chauvinism. Apparently, the battle of the sexes for supremacy is everlasting in its intensity and has always been fought. Consequently, we have both male and female chauvinists, and they appear in Chaucer's works. They make for interesting reading. For certainly, this is a subject that is never dull or boring. Perhaps it is the most important war ever engaged in by humanity.

The Wife of Bath certainly has the qualifications to be an expert on marriage due to the fact that she has been married five times. Basically, she is the Fool of the company in the

traditional manner in which everyday facts are turned topsy-turvy. If practice makes perfect, then the Wife of Bath has had considerable training on the subject of matrimony. And so, the "Prologue" commences: "Experience, though noon auctoritee/Weeere in this world, were right y-nough to me/To I speak of wo that is in marriage;/For, lordinges, sith I twelf yeer was of age,/T

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ll too human. Her lusty emotions and love of carnal concerns are quite evident. She is described by Chaucer as wide of brow and gapped-toothed, which are the features of someone who is exceedingly passionate in their persuasion. After all, the Wife of Bath's true religion was really erotica even though she may have been on a religious pilgrimage to Canterbury. She is happy in marriage as long as she controls her husband and all that goes with it. THE FRANKLIN'S IDEA OF LOVE AND MARRIAGE In contrast, the Franklin takes a completely different position with regard to affairs of the heart. He would make a poor husband for the Wife of Bath due to the fact that he would him or have sovereignty over him. marriage involves a much more liberal in the Wife of Bath's approach. He not want her to control him or have sovereignty over him. The Franklin's view of marriage involves a much more liberal approach than what exists in the Wife of Bath's approach. He really is completely against control by either the wife or the husband, and so he says: "For o thing, sires, saufly dar I seye,/That frends everich other moot obeye,/If they wol longe holden companye./Love wol nat ben constreyned by maistrye;/Whan maistrie comth, the god of lov

Category: Literature - C