Wife of Bath Tale and Tale of Florent:.
Sincere Superiority or Corrupt Dominance.
During the Medieval age under the rule of King Arthur, tales of women's empowerment began to contradict the traditional role of women's inferiority to men. Two of these tales were the Wife of Bath's Tale and the Tale of Florent. Each Tale tells of a young Knight faced with a choice, and with that choice, both choose to be submissive to their wives. Both Tales share the common theme of women's power over men. The knights obtain their wives in different ways, but in the end, the message of what women desire most, which is power over men, becomes clear in both stories. This message is written in a similar fashion in both tales, but it is the viewpoint of the storyteller that makes the substantial difference when interpreting each story. In both tales, a difference is obtained through the varied perspectives of each storyteller, with the knowledge of these perspectives, the moral of the tales differ in light of the experiences and opinions of each narrator. .
The narrator of the first tale is the not so typical Wife of Bath. The Wife of Bath is a woman, with strong opinions and views, in the time of King Arthur during the medieval period, when women were not supposed to have such views. The Wife of Bath is a strong woman in a society in which women are typically inferior to men. She disputes the belief that women should be inferior to men and her story portrays the idea that women should have power over men because men are inferior and can be easily manipulated. She also believes that there is inherent evil in everyone and that even though knights are seen to be the most honorable of men, they are often not honorable at all.
In the Tale of Florent, the narrator is a priest who is telling the story to a young man. The priest is not telling the story to show how men can be manipulated, but for the young man to understand that by being cooperative and following the will of his wife things will be happier for both man and woman.
