Discuss the techniques that Chaucer uses to indirectly characterize the wife in the General Prologue, pp. 56-57.
Maxwell
10/14/2014 10:52:59 pm
I believe that Chaucer uses the things that the wife of Bath owns to describe her. Her new shoes and big hat most likely symbolizes her wealth and power in the society. Her body features also describe her. For example, her gap tooth symbolizes lust and sexuality, possibly implying her ability to seduce men into lustful behaviors.
Jeyson
10/18/2014 01:48:44 pm
I agree with the part of her new shoes and big hat. Looking at medieval paintings and drawings, i see that they ususally have tight clothes. Therefore it is correct to conclude the clothing is related to her wealth.
Ariel
10/18/2014 05:42:51 pm
When I did the research, I also found out that her clothings also mean religious.
Han Joo Kim
10/19/2014 12:35:47 am
I agree with you in that her gap tooth implies that she is adept at seducing or attracting men. However, I do not quite agree that it symbolizes her lust; she is definitely attractive but there is no sign that she herself is desirous of sex.
YuJin Yang
10/14/2014 11:23:09 pm
Chaucer focuses on illustrating the wife’s physical appearance to indirectly characterize her. He emphasizes the color red when he describes the wife’s face and her hose. He is trying to show the wife’s wealth and how attractive she is. Furthermore, the description of the wife’s gap-teeth shows her lustful personality and she is very strategic because “gap-teeth” was regarded as a sign of a strongly-sexed nature in the Middle Ages.
Joshua
10/14/2014 11:44:10 pm
I agree with YuJin that the wife's physical appearance characterizes her as attractive, and I also think that one can further the idea by claiming her as "lustful" from the way she behaves and tries to present herself.
Jeyson
10/18/2014 01:45:59 pm
I agree with the part of gap-teeth. However to me, gap-teeth is more like a symbolism for her outgoing personality. I have read somewhere that gap-teeth people usually talk more even though they are not comfortable with their appearances.
Nick
10/18/2014 10:49:49 pm
I agree with YuJin that her wealth and figure is why she has such an interesting life. Yet, she might be a lonely person that is why she needs others to fulfill her life. Also that's the reason why i think she had 5 husbands.
Joshua
10/14/2014 11:41:29 pm
I feel that Chaucer Illustrates the wife of Bath's character through the symbolic representation of her physical appearance and actions. Chaucer mentions her seductive body figure, which represents sexuality; her red clothes, which represent passion and love; and her wandering nature not only from place to place but from husband to husband, which tells us about the habits of the wife of Bath. These indirect ways of characterization all add up to make a woman who lives a lustful and independent life.
Clifford
10/17/2014 06:42:31 pm
I agree with Joshua on the idea of Chaucer describing the wife of bath with a seductive body figure, but i think that she is lustful but yet dependent of guys. She most likely gained her wealth by marrying over and over again for 5 times, and in the passage, it also mentioned that the wife has other out of marriage partners. She could have gotten all her power and wealth through these people.
Ariel
10/18/2014 01:30:08 pm
I also agree with Joshua on how the author focused on the physical appearance. To me, her wide hip symbolize her wealth. In the past, only rich people can eat good food, thus they tend to be fatter and healthier. Her body shape also represents her outgoing personality.
Ken
10/18/2014 08:39:08 pm
Having wide hips is also a symbol of lust and fertility. Women with large hips can become pregnant without difficulty, so medieval men find them more attractive.
Jeyson
10/17/2014 11:45:35 pm
"Her hose were of the finest scarlet red and gartered right." What I think this quote suggests is that the wife of bath must be rich to have scarlet clothes. This technique is called color imagery (?). Chaucer used a lot of colors in this passage such as black, red, and blue. This characterized different traits of the wish of bath.
Belle
10/18/2014 01:25:15 pm
I agree with you. During Medieval Period, the color of clothing that was worn can determined a person's social class. Lower classes usually wear colthing that's brown or beige. While the upperclasses wear clothng that's red or scarlet, gold, and black.
Yu Jin Yang
10/18/2014 05:12:18 pm
I agree with Jeyson on how Chaucer used various colors to indirectly characterize the wife. The color red (scarlet) represented wealth during the Medieval Period. Therefore, the use of different colors help emphasize the personality of the wife and how she displayed her wealth to other people.
Belle
10/18/2014 01:54:14 pm
"A worthy womean all her life, what's more
She'd had five husbands." This quote can also suggests that the wife of Bath is rich, because during Medieval Period, married women can entitled their husbands' estates when they die. So if wife of Bath had five husbands, she should be quite rich.
Guillaume
10/18/2014 10:56:02 pm
I agree with you on the fact that Bath's wife is rich. I think that her style of clothing also shows that she has a lot of money, since she uses vibrant colors and good quality cloth, which many only be available to people who were rich during the Medieval Period.
Nick Yang
10/18/2014 10:44:24 pm
The color scarlet symbolizes sex and bloody. Chaucer uses scarlet to show the readers the sexual innuendo behind the wife. Also, evidences such as her large hips, and 5 husbands prove that she is a social person. So, I believe she does not care about others' perspective on her, but how others are impressed by her. In conclusion, she might be a rich woman who is able to get re-married without worrying about finiancial issue and do things that she wants to do
Guillaume
10/18/2014 11:15:03 pm
Although Chaucer's descriptions of the Wife of Bath includes a lot of sexual connotations, there are also parts of her descriptions which make her seem like an ideal feminine figure that matches the stereotypes of medieval men. Chaucer stated that the wife of Bath's good at making clothes and has "skillful hands", which is something that forms a sharp contrast with the descriptions of her as a flirtatious and sexually capable woman. Chaucer is probably trying to depict the wife of Bath in another context, showing the readers that she may not be as simple a a character as she seems.
Alex
10/18/2014 11:56:38 pm
I agree with Guillaume. Chaucer's description of the Wife of Bath as a skillful woman definitely shows that she is able. This description of her further proves that she is not a just dumb woman who only knows how to seduce men.
Han Joo Kim
10/19/2014 12:32:50 am
I think Chaucer indirectly describes the Wife of Bath as a woman who may be perceived as immoral from one side, but also skillful on the other hand. First, she is told to have had five husbands, which is immoral in the society both back then and now. Also, she is portrayed as being flirtatious, enjoying company with different new people (most likely men). In addition, Chaucer uses the color red (or scarlet) to describe her clothing; red can symbolize wealth at once, but in this case red is used as a color that is very stimulating to our senses.
However, attracting (or seducing, with a more negative connotation) men is not simply immoral. Being able to attract implies that she is skilled at engaging in relationships. And her extraordinary skill at embroidery exemplifies her as a skilled woman.
Alex
10/19/2014 01:10:08 am
I think Chaucer uses several physical descriptions of the Wife of Bath to describe her character. For example, his description of the wife as a "somewhat deaf [person]" implies that she dose not listen to others. Moreover, Chaucer's description of her tendency to "laugh and chat" further reinforces the point that she does not listen to others while talking a lot.
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