The only thing she regrets in her life is her old age which is consuming her beauty. The Wife of Bath seems to believe in the power of marriage but some of her actions during her five marriages can be me viewed as contradictory to this fact. Throughout the prologue she brings up a lot of issues which were believed to be anti-marriage stereotypes during her time period. She describes herself as being sexually veracious and using sex as a tool to get money. She also describes herself as dominating over her husbands.
The prologue to The Wife of Bath is about power. The Wife goes through many explanations of how and why she struggled to gain power from each of her five husbands. Each husband is described to have served her, and she enjoyed that position of power over them, as she describes throughout the prologue. The Wife talks about how it is the power of how she was created that allows her to use her reproductive organs in the manner that she does. This connects with power, because she is establishing the fact that she knows better than others about what humans were meant to do, and what they were not.
Zelda and Nicole Diver in Tender is the Night are rich socialites seduced by living in the exuberant lifestyles they were accustomed to enjoying. Zelda Fitzgerald and Nicole Diver also are very dependent on their husbands for support of their lavish ways and their mental stability. In the end, both women are plagued with mental illness that is crippling, and forces both husbands to be their support system. Fitzgerald utilized the heroine Nicole Diver to symbolize his relationship with his erratic wife Zelda in Tender is the Night. In the beginning of both the Fitzgerald’s and the Diver’s relationships Zelda and Nicole are rich socialites.
She’s pretty disrespectful and with her fifth husband, they only way she got anything was because she hit him. She has a hard time staying focused to what she saying, that gets confusing and hard to follow. Overall, she is my favorite character so far, she is a powerful woman who gets what she wants, she also, like everyone else, has flaws. Wife of Bath was married five times, “As three of hem were goodie, and two were baddie” (203). Even just classifying these men like this is kinda crazy.
In The Catcher in the Rye however, despite the fact women are also presented as materialistic at times, through Holden Caulfield J.D Salinger explores women as largely innocent and independent, rather than shallow beings who’s existence solely relies on the men in their lives. Ultimately, as both novels are seen through the eyes of men they share a patriarchal view on women in society, but they also explore the representation of women in quite different ways, reflecting their standing in society at the time. The first time women are mentioned six pages into the book is through Daisy. However, interestingly she comes second best to her spouse, and Nick references their family as the “Tom Buchanans”, rather than 'The Buchanans' or 'Tom and Daisy Buchanan'. Daisy is Nick's family, whereas Tom, as well as being her husband, is just someone Nick knew from college.
Mr and Mrs Bennet are the parents of Elizabeth, Jane, Lydia, Kitty and Mary and have a significant role in raising their five daughters to supposedly be well mannered and to eventually marry a wealthy man who will look after them. Their financial position is not extravagant but they lead comfortable lives. Both of whom are from the upper middle class but admire superior rank to themselves, especially Mrs Bennet, who hopes that one day her daughters will all marry rich bachelors. Their characters are completely different and Austen makes this clear in the novel. Mrs Bennet is a ‘woman of mean understanding, little information and uncertain temper’ compared to her husband who is ‘a mixture of quick parts, sarcastic humour, reserve and caprice’, which could be argued that they are not a good match for each other.
In the past, her aggressive nature towards suitors for her daughters has been a negative attribute, which is why her daughters are single up until this point. Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley do have certain love interests in this novel. Mr. Bingley is immediately attracted to Jane, the oldest daughter of the Bennets’, however because of her social status, he is pressured by Darcy not pursue a relationship with her. Mr. Darcy’s age, wealth, and good looks make him a very desirable target for most single women, except for his rude attitude and snobbish demeanor towards people of the middle class. A marriage with him would no doubted improve the
Hubert, the Friar: Seduces young ladies and then arrange marriages for them. He is often out to get money. Alisoun: The Wife of Bath; she has 5 husbands and is very open about her emotions and feelings. She also has married men than are a lot younger than she is. Gives very good advice on love since she has had much experience.
Sita and Draupadi are two female figures in Indian mythology who are mostly viewed to be the ideal women, daughters, and wives. For thousands of years the perceptions of these two women have for the most part, stayed intact, and the belief that they both were the dharmic ideal of wives remained constant. There are instances within the Mahabharata and Ramayana where Sita and Draupadi both deviate from this ideal characterization and prove to be defiant towards their husbands. Draupadi shows her defiance when in the Mahabharata, Yudhisthira, one of her five husbands, gambles her away in a dice game against the Kauravas. She then begins to criticize her husbands for not taking her side.
Unlike the Wife of Baths, the fairy queen in Marie de France’s lais, Lanval, portrays a different kind of demeanor. She is elegant, beautiful beyond measure, and is rich to the highest degree. Although she sounds like the Wife of Baths at first, she does not say anything about herself. While the Wife of Baths proudly flaunts her appearance, the fairy queen lets others do the talking for her. Although both women are powerful beings, one is greater than the other due to the differences between them on how they use their power: one is an over extravagant sex machine, and the other has unworldly beauty and grace.