Wife Of Bath
...servants to their husbands and powerless. This was a time where church and state were one entity and in the church's eyes women were supposed to be gentile and and virtuous. Sexuality and education of women was condemned by the church and state. The clothing during that time also represented the ideals of that time. Their skirts were long and ankles were never to be shown naked in public. Young girls were taught that a fulfilled life included marrying a rich and noble man, staying at home taking care of the kids and being in tune with a lifestyle that the church praised. Chaucer wrote his female characters to represent the women he had come into contact with. The virtuous and beautiful women came into play in the Franklin's and the Physician's tales. In these tales, the women that are the main characters are kind, beautiful and everything the church thought a woman should be. These women showed their virtuousness by choosing death over being morally stained or losing their family honor. Though Chaucer had these kind of women represented in his stories, he was a radical writer. He criticized the church, Medieval society and other common figures he encountered in his travels. The most radical story that Chaucer has written, as far as women are concerned, is The Wife of Bath's Tale . The main character in this tale, which is a woman, actually holds the power over her husband. Though Chaucer wrote of the people of his time, his story of a woman holding power is extremely radical during the time that he had written it.
In the Physician's tale, a knight named Virginius has a beautiful and kind daughter named Virginia. There was a judge named Appius who at all cost wanted to attain the fourteen year old Virginia. He get Claudius, a criminal, to help in his conspiriacy. Claudius goes to court to accuse the knight of stealing a servant girl form him and pretending that...
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