Females in Middle Age Text

Paper Summary:

The female body has been described in many ways over the course of history in different texts. The descriptions range from the essence of life in early and even prehistoric texts and art work to the seed of all evil in latter texts. This paper examines two texts from the Middle Ages. One text is "The Canterbury Tales" by Geoffrey Chaucer, paying close attention to the Wife of Bath character, and the other text is the "Sonnets" by William Shakespeare. It looks at how these two texts paint a very different picture of the female body.

From the Paper:

"In Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath's physical appearance is described in the General Prologue and we learn more about who she is in her tale as she often strays from the tail and gives insight as to who she actually is. The description of the Wife of Bath is quite thorough. The narrator describes not only her physical appearance but also describes the clothes that she is wearing with quite a bit of detail. For instance in lines 455 through 460 we learn that she is wearing an extensive outfit and make up: "Hir covercheifs ful fine were of ground...Hir hosen weren of fin scarlet reed, Ful sraite yteyd and shoes ful moiste and newe. Bold was hir face and fair and reed of hue."(Damrosch et al. 312) This description tells that she is wearing fine kerchiefs, which the narrator guesses weigh ten pounds, upon her head and her shoes are described as tightly laced and of supple leather that is new, showing her financial status. "

More papers on Females in Middle Age Text:

• Analytical Essay # 50278 : "Women's Lack of Agency in Middle English Literature"
• Narrative Essay # 7652 : "Facing the End of Middle Age"
• Persuasive Essay # 91974 : "'The Canterbury Tales'"

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