English Literature

The literary is reflective of the culture during the medieval period.  In the medieval times, patriarchal rule governs.  In its general sense, men were viewed to have been invested with superiority in terms of intellect, knowledge, spiritual endowment and strength.  Women were viewed as inferior to them.  Culture itself created the incongruity.  In relation to this, the following discussion shall deal on the rationale of the reverse effect on the roles the characters portray in the literary work on the readers.
   
The wife of Bath married five (5) times.  During this period, it was disgraceful to see a woman with different partners.  More so, that engagement in several relationships was treated as promiscuity.  The condition of the wife could be regarded then as polygamy and she could have been judged as a dishonorable wife. Despite this however, as reader, she could not be regarded as contemptible.  In fact, people must be sorry for her.  She had been overpowered by influential and highly dominant characters of her lovers.  She was pretty, happy and content with her condition.  She never complained about her flight in life probably because the dictates of the culture then were acceptable for her, or even if it were not acceptable to her, she could not have done otherwise.  Her weakness as a woman was emphasized in the story but she could not however be regarded as stupid.  She was reasonable.  She reasoned that her having married five times was in consonance with Gods command to go to the world and multiply.  Besides, her fidelity remained in her present husband.  She never had more than one relationships at a time.  Despite the harshness of some her husbands, she patiently played her role as a wife.  She loved each of them dearly and never allowed anybody to oppress her.  Moreover, she was strong in hr belief in her God and obeyed the laws of her church more importantly she lived her life in accordance with the dictates of the Church which was then given high regard.  She was simply innocent and no one could be blamed for being innocent.
   
On the other hand, the five husbands of the wife were not at all cruel and unkind to her.  While her fourth husband had a mistress, she was loved by him dearly.  She was given the love as though she was the only woman and was provided with her needs and luxury.  She was nevertheless special to him.  The love that they shared was pure and the wife in particular was content with her relationship with him.  She never regretted to have known and loved him.  On the other hand, while the fifth husband had beaten her up, he knew how to coddle her and win her heart again.  The wife, innocent as she was, would easily fall into the prey of her husbands caress, submit to his arms back again and continue to be loved by him.  She mentioned that she was beaten several times, but she never felt any speck of anger against him nor indignant to him.  While she was submissive, she was never enslaved by the husband.  The pain that she felt from her husbands beatings was in the beginning nothing compared to the enormous love that he showed her.  She was embraced with too much attention and nurturing love.  Meanwhile, she remained free and her actions unrestricted.  She continued to live a life of a normal couple (with her husband) in her generation.  The riches of some of her husbands were never deprived from her in the same way that she never deprived any of them of her loving care and attention as she believed that a wife who chides her husband away would lead the husband to unreasonably abandon his wife. 
   
The conviction of the wife of continuously living with her husband despite the ordeals of their relationship had encountered her conviction of justifying her having married five (5) different men were praiseworthy.  She showed a strong belief in her faith and had reasonably obeyed the laws of God and the laws of society then observed in her time.  Without having to defy the laws of her faith, she showed the real meaning of the words of her Supreme Being.