Two Advocates of Feminism: Griselda and the Wife of Bath in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

Abstract

This thesis provides a critical analysis of the concept of feminism within Chaucer’s the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, and the Clerk’s Prologue and Tale. Because the two leading female characters in these tales seem to represent two extremes, it is interesting to see how feminism is portrayed within the two tales through the themes of marriage and female identity. This thesis argues that although Griselda and the Wife of Bath initially seem to represent two extremes, the opposite is true, because both women display a strong sense of feminism through their ability to overthrow male authority.