The Most Awesome Paragraph Ever (including The Most Awesome Sentence Ever)

Writing that “…the assault is the more overwhelming as the nature [of the female sex] they attack is the weaker,” Heloise portrays herself as less capable of piety than her former husband Abelard (Letters 133). Perhaps this submissive, anti-feminist approach is a result of her all-encompassing desire to humble herself before him, honoring Abelard as though he is God. Likewise, the Wife of Bath is similarly anti-feminist in order to be forgiving of male misdeeds in her tale: the rape victim is never named and is presumably shamed out of court by the impurity forced upon her by her male oppressor; the old hag becomes both a beautiful and faithful wife after her new husband has presumably learned his lesson about sovereignty, though his decision to let her choose her appearance seems to be based more in frustration over the perceived hopelessness of his situation than in acquired wisdom; and most basically, the entire tale (like the Wife of Bath’s life) is framed around the man’s desires, as he is exonerated for an unatoned-for rape and essentially rewarded for the very crime he committed through the acquisition of the perfect wife, whose good traits, beauty and faithfulness, are really only important in relation to him. The Wife of Bath, based on the self-focused commentary of her prologue, would seem to be a proponent of a confident, decisive womanhood but is rather subconsciously submissive to the men in her life, as is evidenced by the female characters’ relationships to the male characters in her tale. Heloise is clearly more aware of her submissiveness to and dependence upon her husband, while the Wife of Bath seems to think she possesses sovereignty over the other sex, while she actually prostrates femininity in the face of male power.