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The Wife of Birth and Her Relation to the Themes of Sex, Marriage and Dominion (2)
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The Wife of Birth and Her Relation to the Themes of Sex, Marriage and Dominion
Chaucer has been a great writer of all times, and this can be seen from his stories that portray modern society and how it is still connected to the ancient communities. One of Chaucer’s greatest novels is the Canterbury Tales that consists of several stories that are all intriguing. Among the stories, “The Wife of Bath” is the most intriguing having a feminist approach and to which tries to portly a society dominated by women. The primary themes of ‘The Wife of Bath’ are sex, marriage, and domination, and the author has greatly emphasized the three through the main character, and that is The Wife of Bath. In the early times, sex between unmarried people was regarded as a sin, and a person who was involved in sex illegally was looked down upon in scorn. A large population of the time was religious and therefore did not approve of the sex, terming sex as an institution in marriage alone. However, The Wife of Bath is defiant of the church rules, and her character is entirely different from what is expected of her by both the church and the society.
The Wife of Bath is outlined as a vivacious character not only in ‘The Wife of Bath’ but also in the entire Canterbury Tales as she is presented as a flawed and more realistic character. Initially, The Wife of Bath got married at an early age of twelve years, and since then, she has had five husbands from whom she has amassed a lot of wealth. Besides, The Wife of Bath had other sexual relationships outside her marriage, and this implies that she has not been faithful in her relationships. Being married at an early age indicates the institution of marriage as not highly regarded as at the age of twelve a person is too young to be married, but The Wife of Bath defied the odd getting married not only to one man but to several and even cheating on them during her marriage.
The Wife of Bath is also a talented woman as she is a cloth maker, and we are told that her skills surpassed those of the weavers in Ypres and Ghent, and besides this, she has greatly travelled across the world, something unnatural for a woman during her times. Chaucer notes that she has traveled to the pilgrimages in Jerusalem, Spain, Boulogne, and Cologne. However, it should be noted that all her journeys to the pilgrimages were not as a result of her devotion to religious believes, but it is a reflection of her socialization status as well as motive or drives to find another husband. Through this, she is depicted as an outgoing character who is able to socialize even at her most trying moments.
Regarding her appearance, The Wife of Bath is described by the author through her physical looks as well as the clothing that she wears. The description is an implication that she is very sexually aware. However, she is not described as a beautiful woman as the author describes her in line 458 as a “Bold was her face, and fair, and red of hue.” However, she did not depend on beauty to attract men into marrying her as her apparel indicates the trappings of wealth and sexual display, which she displays with her body. She is described as wearing tightly-laced scarlet stockings, sharp spurs, shiny new shoes, and fine head garments. Through this description, we get to see a sexually hungry woman who is devoted to attracting men to her body, and even without beauty, she uses her dressing style, like a prostitute, to gain dominion over men. All the details in her dressing description make her perceived as a flamboyant and extravagant character who does it intend to attract attention from others. The Wife of Birth, therefore, cannot only be described as egocentric but also a proud woman who likes showing off her possession.
The red color to which the author uses to describe The Wife of Birth’s looks is a representation of her sexuality and sense of her own significance as well as dominance over others. The Wife of Birth laments of her past, claiming that she was once full of beauty and she has lost her youth and vigor as she ages “But age, alas, that poisons everything, / Has taken away my beauty and my spirit.” Through her lamentations, she wistfully acknowledges how she has declined in her attractiveness. The Wife of Birth at the time of narration was now over forty years, having gaps on her tooth. With wide hips, to her, the gap-teeth tends to suit her well, and to her, this is intentional as, during the medieval folklore, the gapped teeth was a feature that was associated with lustfulness. Her lustfulness has been emphasized by the fact that the author refers to her “wondering by the way,” which can be described as a metaphor that implies her weakness for sexual affairs.
Other than her character and appearance, The Wife of Birth is described as being pushy, brazen, and self-confident, and this is highly evident from her introductory lines that are indicative of her claims of authority through her vast experiences in her marriages. The Wife of Birth frankly makes admissions that she has been married to all the husbands due to her lust for wealth, they are all wealthy, and this is one of her agenda she looked at when being engaged into a man. However, all her marriages do not conform to societal gender expectations as her role as a woman is not implicit in her marriages. She tends to dominate in her marriages and thus acting against the societal norms. The Wife of Birth also makes revelations of some of the tricks that she uses in her marriage in order to gain mastery over her husband.
On the surface, three husbands are perceived to have treated her well, and this is because they have offered her land and money, and they have been eager to bring her things from the fair. However, The Wife of Birth is driven by dominance over her men, and thus she abuses the men’s kindness and realizes that she doesn’t need to work so that she gains their love. Furthermore, she did not have to please them unless hit was of her own profit, an indication that she used sex as a tool to control men in her marriages. She used to manipulate the husbands, taking advantage of their love to source wealth from them, an implication that she is a sexual predator. The Wife of Birth’s confessions that she used her husbands to get profit is also a suggestion that she is materialistic, in that she uses men and the institution of marriage for her selfish gains of self-advancement. However, she did not have a conscious that her treatment to her husband was immoral, and since most of them died, it might be perceived that she had something to do with their deaths.
In another perspective, The Wife of Birth had a different perception of life, and this can be seen from her liberal attitudes towards sexuality as well as the concepts of freedom to women. It should be noted that in ancient times, most of the societies were dominated by men, and women were granted very little freedom. However, in ‘The Wife of Birth’ the Wife controversially how she is capable of using her body to gain dominion over men and in her defense, she argues that since God has provided her with the genitals that she intends to use to get men, then it is not a problem. Through this, she comes to challenge the church and its teachings about marriage and about women and sexual ethics. Through her comments and bawdy language, The Wife of Birth can be characterized as a shrewish harpy who is characterized by loose morals. However, from another perspective, she has been used by the author to illustrate the double standards that were directed to women during medieval times. In her introduction, The Wife of Birth argues that she has the right to remarry after the death of her husband, but this was against the teachings of the church in regard to chastity, which according to the believers, was more desirable than having a second husband or another marriage. However, The Wife of Birth challenges the teachings providing examples in the Bible to support her right to remarry. For example, she cites men such as Abraham and Jacob, who had many wives and yet had a close relationship with God.
Finally, The Wife of Birth has been described as a woman who is manipulative and uses her ability to manipulate not only the scripture but also men to her own advantage. To the scripture, she cites her right to remarry and also claims that her genitals were God-given, and thus she could use them according to how she perceived as right. She, therefore, enjoys the epitome of freedom as a woman, not like any other women in her society. However, she missuses her independence to dominate men through sexual control. She also uses it to solicit wealth and thus can be described as an opportunist. The Wife of Birth, therefore, matches the main themes of the tale that is sex, marriage, and dominion in greater lengths.
Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury tales and other poems. BoD–Books on Demand, 2018.
The Autobiography of
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The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Junior
History refers to the study of past events as they appear chronologically. It is important to study history as it provides people with awareness regarding particular events that are significant in the history of a nation. There are various ways that we can learn about history, and some of them include having a direct account of the events through experience and also through learning it from recorded sources such as books in textual form or through audial, visual tapes. Since most of the events in history were not recorded on visual tapes, direct accounts from the people who witnessed the event can be used to learn how life was like during their times. One of such direct accounts is the autobiographies, which refers to life accounts of a person which are written by the same person. For this assignment, I am going to research the autobiography of Martin Luther King Junior, who can be regarded as one of the national heroes in America as he was pivotal in advocating against racism and stereotyping in the United States.
The autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t written in a conventional manner since it was not compiled by King himself. The autobiography is an assembly of King’s work that includes speeches and writings, a work that was performed by Clayborne Carson, a Stanford University historian. However, despite being assembled by someone else, the original work still remains to give an accurate depiction of history as it appeared since the birth all through the life history of Martin Luther King Junior (King and Carson). From the introduction, Carson explains the editorial choices that he had to make in order to make the large volumes of documents to a more coherent narrative that could be easily read by people. It is after Carson’s introduction that the rest of King’s information begins to flow.
The autobiography begins with King’s introduction to his early life. King states that he was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929 (King and Carson). He recounts that most of part of his childhood was happy as well as that of his adolescence. As a young boy, he was brought up by his parents in a black neighborhood. King’s parents were religious, and in line with the societal expectations, King was also brought up in a religious manner. He grew up in church, learning the ways of God. Despite being a staunch believer, he began to question the Bible at an early age as a teenager. He couldn’t comprehend how the Bible made it a mandate for all Christians to love their enemies or those who did them wrong, yet there were other people in the same society who never felt the need to love.
Therefore King found it difficult to love the hateful white racists since they did offend him often. It is as a result of these biblical teachings and the encounters with the white racists that King developed and built his urge to fight for equality of all people regardless of race. He, therefore, dedicated his life to fighting against such vices as racism and segregation in society. The dug deep to explore philosophy and theology, where he further saw the need to fight for the equality and freedom for all, perceiving it as his Christian duty and to which he was deemed to pursue. He attended many seminars, and through this, he continued to reinforce the belief of freedom and equality for all, becoming particularly inspired by the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi whose method of fighting for equality was non-violent yet effective. Mahatma Gandhi’s methods, therefore, became an inspiration to King and greatly influenced his political course throughout his life as both a politician and civil rights activist.
King attended Boston University, and until this time, he had not forsaken his course of fighting against racism (Hewitt). At Boston, he continued to examine the interaction of religion and philosophy, using the two to question the ways in which he could achieve social justice through love and faith since most of the United States citizens were Christians and knew what the word was teaching. King eventually obtained his Ph.D. in Boston, and while he was still there, he met his soul mate Coretta Scott, who he later married. Scott was also a social justice activist, and therefore, the two made a perfect combination, proceeding to have four children after marriage.
King’s wife was from Alabama, and therefore after completion, they became distanced until King became a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama (Reddick). During his service in Alabama, he quickly became a popular figure within the religious community. As a result, he began engaging in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People with the aim of helping them achieve social justice. King was among the first people to hear the arrest of Rosa Parks for refusing to surrender her bus seat to a white person. King became annoyed and swore to take action. He used his popularity to organize a boycott of the bus services, an action that grew up rapidly with thousands of black people boycotting the bus services. As a result of this, King’s popularity increased, becoming well-known in the region.
King’s popularity grew so fast, and since he was now perceived as a politician, threats to his safety began to increase. King was served with several death threats, arrested by the white police who were known for their racist attitudes towards the colored, beaten, and even had his house bombed. However, despite all the tribulations, King vowed to maintain his stance of using non-violent resistance in fighting for equality, and he was able to convince his people to adopt the same course, even after there was increased anger and calls for retaliation. The non-violent activism continued, and as a result, the mass incarceration of black people was witnessed with King as their leader finding himself in the same situation. Despite having so much opposition, the non-violent activism paid off as in 1956; the buses were desegregated; this was not only success to King but also a motivation to advance his course for equality of all races. King even traveled to Africa and India to witness the legacy set by his mentor Mahatma Gandhi.
Back in the United States, King was being cornered by the white supremacists through arrests and threats of long imprisonment and bombings. However, King did not abandon his dream, and instead of giving up, he continued to build his movement both in numbers and strength, and this was evident in the 1963 protests. During the 1963 protest, King was to deliver the famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and it is in this time that he became legendary, with almost a quarter of a million individuals attending the protest (Wittenstein). Among the people who participated in the protest in solidarity with King’s course include many allies from the white churches and unions.
Even at this time, the violent intimidation by the white supremacists was ongoing in other regions where numerous racist acts were performed. Most of the atrocities included the murder of colored children as well as the frequent beatings that were overseen by the police. However, this did not stop King from agitating for freedom, and the breakthrough came in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed with King, also winning the Nobel Prize. The two events became a marker of significant progress for the civil rights movement. However, this was not the end of the struggle as more was coming, and the police brutality to the people of color continued to rise.
As a result of the increased brutality, divisions between the colored become visible with continued disagreements as to which was the most effective method to which victory could be achieved. Malcom X advocated for violence, and many people as well perceived it as the right way to achieve the more desired victory (Sales and William). However, King maintained his commitment to non-violent means perceiving a violent retaliation as unnecessary. King and Malcom X only met once and disagreed significantly with each other’s tactics and political philosophies. However, when Malcom X was assassinated, Jing felt that it was a great tragedy and wrongdoing. Despite the continued divisions, along with the police brutality to the people of color, the civil rights movement was able to fight for the Voting Rights Act, which was passed in 1965 and to which secured the racial minority voting rights.
After racial minority voting rights were granted, King spent his time working in poverty-stricken regions such as Chicago and Los Angeles as a gesture to respond to the economic racism as well as the segregation in public schools (Jackson). King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The autobiography comes to an end with several writings and speeches to which King used as a dedication to fighting social injustices in American society. Based on his autobiography, there are various things that can be learned regarding American history, and some of them is that people had to struggle for freedom to be granted. The cost of freedom in America, especially for the people of color, was to lose the very leaders who advocated for the freedom and rights of the people of color. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great leader, selfless, and dedicated to his course.
Works Cited
Hewitt, Christopher. Catching Terrorists in America: From Martin Luther King Jr.’s Murder to the Boston Marathon Bombing. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019.
Jackson, Thomas F. From civil rights to human rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the struggle for economic justice. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.
King, Martin Luther Jr. and Carson, Clayborne. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Intellectual Properties Management in Association with Warner Brooks, New York. 1998.
Reddick, Lawrence Dunbar. Crusader Without Violence: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. NewSouth Books, 2018.
Sales Jr, William W., and William W. Sales. From civil rights to Black liberation: Malcolm X and the organization of Afro-American unity. South End Press, 1994.
Wittenstein, Barry. A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation. Holiday House, 2019.
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Junior
Student’s Name:
Instructor’s Name:
Course Code:
Date:
The Autobiography of Martin Luther King Junior
History refers to the study of past events as they appear chronologically. It is important to study history as it provides people with awareness regarding particular events that are significant in the history of a nation. There are various ways that we can learn about history, and some of them include having a direct account of the events through experience and also through learning it from recorded sources such as books in textual form or through audial, visual tapes. Since most of the events in history were not recorded on visual tapes, direct accounts from the people who witnessed the event can be used to learn how life was like during their times. One of such direct accounts is the autobiographies, which refers to life accounts of a person which are written by the same person. For this assignment, I am going to research the autobiography of Martin Luther King Junior, who can be regarded as one of the national heroes in America as he was pivotal in advocating against racism and stereotyping in the United States.
The autobiography of Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t written in a conventional manner since it was not compiled by King himself. The autobiography is an assembly of King’s work that includes speeches and writings, a work that was performed by Clayborne Carson, a Stanford University historian in 1998. However, despite being assembled by someone else, the original work still remains to give an accurate depiction of history as it appeared since the birth all through the life history of Martin Luther King Junior (King and Carson, n.p). From the introduction, Carson explains the editorial choices that he had to make in order to make the large volumes of documents to a more coherent narrative that could be easily read by people. It is after Carson’s introduction that the rest of King’s information begins to flow.
The autobiography begins with King’s introduction to his early life. King states that he was born in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1929 (King and Carson, n.p). He recounts that most of part of his childhood was happy as well as that of his adolescence. As a young boy, he was brought up by his parents in a black neighborhood. King’s parents were religious, and in line with the societal expectations, King was also brought up in a religious manner. He grew up in church, learning the ways of God. Despite being a staunch believer, he began to question the Bible at an early age as a teenager. He couldn’t comprehend how the Bible made it a mandate for all Christians to love their enemies or those who did them wrong, yet there were other people in the same society who never felt the need to love.
Therefore King found it difficult to love the hateful white racists since they did offend him often. It is as a result of these biblical teachings and the encounters with the white racists that King developed and built his urge to fight for equality of all people regardless of race. He, therefore, dedicated his life to fighting against such vices as racism and segregation in society. King dug deep to explore philosophy and theology, where he further saw the need to fight for the equality and freedom for all, perceiving it as his Christian duty and to which he was deemed to pursue. He attended many seminars, and through this, he continued to reinforce the belief of freedom and equality for all, becoming particularly inspired by the Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi whose method of fighting for equality was non-violent yet effective Hodder, p 15). Mahatma Gandhi’s methods, therefore, became an inspiration to King and greatly influenced his political course throughout his life as both a politician and civil rights activist.
King attended Boston University in 1951, and until this time, he had not forsaken his course of fighting against racism (Hewitt, n.p). At Boston, he continued to examine the interaction of religion and philosophy, using the two to question the ways in which he could achieve social justice through love and faith since most of the United States citizens were Christians and knew what the word was teaching. King eventually obtained his Ph.D. in Systematic Theology in 1955, in Boston, and while he was still there, he met his soul mate Coretta Scott, who he later married in 1953. Scott was also a social justice activist, and therefore, the two made a perfect combination, proceeding to have four children after marriage, Martin Luther King III, Dexter King, Yolanda King and Bernice King.
King’s wife was from Alabama, and therefore after completion, they became distanced until King became a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama in 1954 (Reddick, n.p). During his service in Alabama, he quickly became a popular figure within the religious community. As a result, he began engaging in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1944, with the aim of helping them achieve social justice. King was among the first people to hear the arrest of Rosa Parks on December 1st 1955, for refusing to surrender her bus seat to a white person. King became annoyed and swore to take action. He used his popularity to organize a boycott of the bus services, an action that grew up rapidly with thousands of black people boycotting the bus services for a period of 1 year since December 5th, 1955 to December 20th, 1956. As a result of this, King’s popularity increased, becoming well-known in the region.
King’s popularity grew so fast, and since he was now perceived as a politician, threats to his safety began to increase. King was served with several death threats, arrested by the white police who were known for their racist attitudes towards the colored, beaten, and even had his house bombed in January 30th, 1956. However, despite all the tribulations, King vowed to maintain his stance of using non-violent resistance in fighting for equality, and he was able to convince his people to adopt the same course, even after there was increased anger and calls for retaliation. The non-violent activism continued, and as a result, the mass incarceration of black people was witnessed with King as their leader finding himself in the same situation. Despite having so much opposition, the non-violent activism paid off as in 1956; the buses were desegregated; this was not only success to King but also a motivation to advance his course for equality of all races. King even traveled to Africa and India in 1959, to witness the legacy set by his mentor Mahatma Gandhi.
Back in the United States, King was being cornered by the white supremacists through arrests and threats of long imprisonment and bombings. However, King did not abandon his dream, and instead of giving up, he continued to build his movement both in numbers and strength, and this was evident in the 1963 protests. During the 1963 protest, King was to deliver the famous “I Have a Dream” speech, and it is in this time that he became legendary, with almost a quarter of a million individuals attending the protest (Wittenstein, n.p). Among the people who participated in the protest in solidarity with King’s course include many allies from the white churches and unions.
Even at this time, the violent intimidation by the white supremacists was ongoing in other regions where numerous racist acts were performed. Most of the atrocities included the murder of colored children as well as the frequent beatings that were overseen by the police (Wood, n.p). However, this did not stop King from agitating for freedom, and the breakthrough came in 1964 when the Civil Rights Act was passed with King, also winning the Nobel Prize (King Jr., p 225). The two events became a marker of significant progress for the civil rights movement. However, this was not the end of the struggle as more was coming, and the police brutality to the people of color continued to rise.
As a result of the increased brutality, divisions between the colored become visible with continued disagreements as to which was the most effective method to which victory could be achieved. Malcom X advocated for violence, and many people as well perceived it as the right way to achieve the more desired victory (Sales and William, n.p). However, King maintained his commitment to non-violent means perceiving a violent retaliation as unnecessary. King and Malcom X only met once and disagreed significantly with each other’s tactics and political philosophies. However, when Malcom X was assassinated on 21st February 1965, Jing felt that it was a great tragedy and wrongdoing. Despite the continued divisions, along with the police brutality to the people of color, the civil rights movement was able to fight for the Voting Rights Act, which was passed in 1965 and to which secured the racial minority voting rights.
After racial minority voting rights were granted, King spent his time working in poverty-stricken regions such as Chicago and Los Angeles as a gesture to respond to the economic racism as well as the segregation in public schools (Jackson, n.p). King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. The autobiography comes to an end with several writings and speeches to which King used as a dedication to fighting social injustices in American society. Based on his autobiography, there are various things that can be learned regarding American history, and some of them is that people had to struggle for freedom to be granted. The cost of freedom in America, especially for the people of color, was to lose the very leaders who advocated for the freedom and rights of the people of color. Martin Luther King Jr. was a great leader, selfless, and dedicated to his course.
Works Cited
Hewitt, Christopher. Catching Terrorists in America: From Martin Luther King Jr.’s Murder to the Boston Marathon Bombing. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019.
Hodder, Jake. “Casting a black Gandhi: Martin Luther King Jr., American pacifists and the global dynamics of race.” Journal of American Studies (2019): 1-27.
Jackson, Thomas F. From civil rights to human rights: Martin Luther King, Jr., and the struggle for economic justice. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.
King Jr, Martin Luther. “Nobel Prize acceptance speech.” A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr (1964): 224-226.
King, Martin Luther Jr. and Carson, Clayborne. The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Intellectual Properties Management in Association with Warner Brooks, New York. 1998.
Reddick, Lawrence Dunbar. Crusader Without Violence: A Biography of Martin Luther King, Jr. NewSouth Books, 2018.
Sales Jr, William W., and William W. Sales. From civil rights to Black liberation: Malcolm X and the organization of Afro-American unity. South End Press, 1994.
Wittenstein, Barry. A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation. Holiday House, 2019.
Wood, Amy Louise. Lynching and spectacle: Witnessing racial violence in America, 1890-1940. Univ of North Carolina Press, 2011.