Gender Roles: Men and Women; Dominance and Submission

        The first four of the Wife of Bath’s marriages could be viewed as dominant/submissive relationships.  Upon hearing the word ‘dominant’ the words powerful, commanding, and controlling come to mind.  In her first four marriages she appears to be that dominant and also exhibits all of those characteristics.  She knows what she wants and how to use the tools she’d been given (her sexual power) to obtain it.  She is resourceful and uses her dominant sexual experience to bring her husbands into total submission.  However, in reality, she has been the submissive all along.  This reader revelation is not clear until she talks about her fifth husband.  Considering the time period, the Wife of Bath seemed like a woman going against the rules of society but in retrospect she was just approaching her role from a different perspective.  Women were believed to be pure and virtuous, while relying and remaining loyal to one husband.  The Wife of Bath chose to essentially sleep her way to the top, while still relying on her husbands for the support and comfort of an upper class lifestyle.  They are the real dominant figures within her relationships.  How this is done is through the distraction of the Wife of Bath’s sexual power.  Though she does have, without question, a true power in her, I noticed that all of her wealthy and older husbands let her control them because they saw her as a prize.  She was beautiful and appeased their sexual needs—even though she toyed with their desires.  Her fifth husband is the reveal of her true role because there is no distraction.  He was a poor student who was young and extremely attractive, most importantly, he was still a man.  And because he had nothing and was, for all intensive purposes, in his prime the Wife of Bath’s faux domineering tactics did not work.