British Literature Women Of Lo

Want to read the rest of this paper? Join Essayworld today to view this entire essay and over 50,000 other term papers

good and evil women. To know them is a middle class education.” I’m certainly a believer in that philosophy! After all, that’s why I’m in school.

















In beginning to compare and contrast the role of women the The Wife of Bath’s Tale, by Geoffrey Chaucer, The Second Shepherd’s Play, by Wakefield Master, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, by Sir Gawain, one needs to look closely at the stories.
The Wife of Bath’s , tale is a brief Arthurian romance incorporating the widespread theme of the “loathly lady.” It is the story of a woman magically transformed into an ugly shape who can be restored to her former state only be some specific action.
It also embodies some surprising traces of the courtly tradition, along with The Second Shepherd’s Play, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. All three tales seem to illustrate the transforming power of love for their men. Although they were are different they all showed the effect of their love. That ...

Get instant access to over 50,000 essays. Write better papers. Get better grades. Already a member? Login

He answers that she is old and ugly and lowborn. The old woman demonstrated to him that none of these matter—especially noble birth, since true gentilesse depends on deeds rather than birth. She offers him the choice: he can have her old and ugly and faithful or young, beautiful, and possibly unchaste. He tells her to choose; he grants her the sovereignty. When he does so she turns into a beautiful maiden, and they live thereafter in perfect joy.
That she so fair was and so yong therto,
For joye he hente hire in his arms two;
His herte bathed in a bath of blisse;
A thousand time arewe he gan hire kisse…(Chaucer 356) Even under the rule of King Arthur and his ...

Succeed in your coursework without stepping into a library. Get access to a growing library of notes, book reports, and research papers in 2 minutes or less.

CITE THIS PAGE: