Medieval society was different, but not so different from what we experience today. In the fourteenth century people lived their life, almost the same life that we live. They were born, grew up, fell in love, married, had children and died. They ate, got drunk, went to work with hangovers, beat their spouses, grieved for their dead...
There was alot about fourteenth century that we would find familiar.
Women had a great role in medieval times. You can find women in different roles. Chaucer in his Canterbury Tales tells of several women. Two are among the travelers on the pilgrimage to Canterbury and the others are characters in numerous tales during the journey. The wife of Bath, the old women in the Wife of Bath's Tale, and Griselda, a character in the Clerk's Tale, each exemplify the divergent role of women in fourteenth century. These women are true examples of women of the past, and on the contrast can also be examples of women of nowdays because although lifestyles may change, however general behaviors remain the same.
From the first page of Canterbury Tales: The Wife ...
Wife of Bath in the Ellesmere manuscript
Rosa 'Wife of Bath', Austin 1969Forceful and vivacious, The Wife of Bath is an ideal illustration of an unrestrained and lewd woman of the fourteenth century. She has been widowed five times and she is going on the pilgrimage to Canterbury to possibly find her next husband. The Wife is opposed to the concept of chastity and plainly states her personal ideas concerning that subject within the prologue of her tale...
Tell me to what conclusion or in aid of what were generative organs made? And for what profit were those creatures wrought? Trust me, they cannot have been made for naught.
Her attire is pretentious; she wears vivid garments and ornate headdresses. As a result of her flamboyant vanity, The Wife would have been censured by...