When the Middle Ages began, society was divided into a rigid class system. But by the time Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, the world was changing rapidly. A new social mobility was granted, and the “middle” or working class was created. Before this, women were ignored and often blamed for the plights of their society, and the new social mobility opened many new doors for women. Women, whom for years were starved for control and influence in their world, suddenly could exercise power over their husbands and other men. An example of these revolutionary women can be seen in Chaucer’s Alison, the Wife of Bath. The Wife of Bath, a character in The Canterbury Tales, is a lusty woman who desires nothing more than sovereignty over her husbands, and she says all women desire the same thing.In the beginning of the Middle Ages, women were labeled as a threat. Society considered all women “depraved and treacherous daughters of Eve” (Brault 41). The church published pamphlets like “Holy Maidenhood” explaining the benefits of becoming a nun. Women were told the only way they could be saved was virginity, to not give into Eve’s influence. But as soon as women recognized their new social mobility available to them, they quickly seized the chance to reign sovereign in their individual households. Women like the Wife of Bath, who were tired of being scared into virginity, began to “contradict many of the old oppressive customs and assert their own overbearing assessment of the roles of women in society and in relationships” (Blake). Alison sees no point in virginity because if “Lord God had commanded maidenhood, He’d have condemned all marriage as not good” (Chaucer 310). And in her five marriages, Alison, like other women of the time, insists she “have the power during all [her] life over his own good body, and not he” (Chaucer 415). Th...
