1. Why do you suppose the queen and her ladies beg Arthur not to execute the knight who has molested the woman? What do the queen and her ladies stand to gain?
2. Come up with an adjective to describe the story-teller, the Wife of Bath, and cite a quotation from the reading to support your choice of quotation, and explain as necessary.
3. Do you think it makes sense to raise the question of "what thing it is that women most desire" (line 49)? Or does the question not make sense, because women are too different from each other to make such a generalization?
4. Why might the Wife of Bath herself be interested in the question of "what thing it is that women most desire?"
5. Why might a culture be interested in the question of "what thing it is that women most desire"? Do you think our own culture is interested in the question?
6. Choose a passage that you find interesting or important or likable and explain why.
2. Come up with an adjective to describe the story-teller, the Wife of Bath, and cite a quotation from the reading to support your choice of quotation, and explain as necessary.
3. Do you think it makes sense to raise the question of "what thing it is that women most desire" (line 49)? Or does the question not make sense, because women are too different from each other to make such a generalization?
4. Why might the Wife of Bath herself be interested in the question of "what thing it is that women most desire?"
5. Why might a culture be interested in the question of "what thing it is that women most desire"? Do you think our own culture is interested in the question?
6. Choose a passage that you find interesting or important or likable and explain why.
16 comments:
1. Why do you suppose the queen and her ladies beg Arthur not to execute the knight who has molested the woman? What do the queen and her ladies stand to gain?
I think that women sometimes ask men questions to see how much they know. It's kind of silly, but girls do it! We ask boys things we think we already know just to hear their answer and tell them they're wrong or to tease them about being right. I think this is the case here, but perhaps more serious.
The queen and her ladies may want the knight to be spared and answer their question because if he is wrong he will die learning a lesson, and it he is right, he will be able to continue living with the lesson still learned. I think women tend to me portrayed as more sensitive than men in most stories and the queen may just want to give the knight a second chance at life wonce he knows the right thing to do.
Also, I think the queen wants the knight to feel worse about what he's done than he does feel. Now, to save his life, he has to review over and over what he did and what he should have been doing with women, how he SHOULD have been treating them. The queen wants him to get more out of his wrong than the simple death penalty. Perhaps she thinks what he did is too bad to be penalised with a quick way out, death.
#3
Do you think it makes sense to raise the question of "what thing it is that women most desire" (line 49)? Or does the question not make sense, because women are too different from each other to make such a generalization?
I think this question makes sense not exactly because there is one sole answer but because it teaches him about women. Obviously the man didn't know much about the opposite sex or he never would have raped the poor woman therefore i think that by threatening him with a death sentence and forcing him to search for this answer that requires so much research and study it pushes him into learning all about woman which will ensure that he never does such a terrible act again. The one thing i don't like about this though is that rape is a very serious and horrible thing and I'm not sure i like the idea of him living happily ever after with a beautiful loyal wife when he had done such evil even if he did learn his lesson.
Answer to #3
I don't think that it is entirely fair to ask the man about what women desire the most. It does seem to me that there are too many differences between personalities to make a definite answer, and it would be impossible to come up with a median answer.
Perhaps the question is more philosophical, and/or similar to how Laura described it (as a means to make the man repent). It is probably just a question to initiate some thinking on his part, and for him to question his lustful behavior. The Queen, I believe, simply wants him to repent, using the question as a sort of "disguise" for her real ambition.
3. Do you think it makes sense to raise the question of "what thing it is that women most desire" (line 49)? Or does the question not make sense, because women are too different from each other to make such a generalization?
I think it makes sense for the queen to ask the question of "whar thing it is that woman most desire?" back to the king. This way the king who raped a woman can learn the importance of woman and the value. Because of the fact that the king have raped a woman makes me think that he may not know a lot about woman and by queen asking him to learn and find the answer to this question might make him realize someting important. Although it's kind of impossible to find the answer to the question, because woman is so different from man in a lot of different ways, I think I might be a good way to learn about woman in a hard way.
3. Do you think it makes sense to raise the question of "what thing it is that women most desire" (line 49)? Or does the question not make sense, because women are too different from each other to make such a generalization?
I do not think this question is something that can be answered.This is because woman are all different with their desires and wantings. Depending on their personalities, or maybe how they were raised. Woman are all different and all want different things from men. I think some woman don't even want love but independence from men so this might be a tough question to answer in the generalization of women and their opinions.
Although I do believe it is fair to ask this question. After the knight has raped the Wife of Bath, the queen thinks in a smart way. They don't want to set him free of course after rape (which shows some facts about the culture and their respect for women) but she doesn't also want to kill him right away. I believe the queen thinks since the knight thinks he can take over a woman's body he must be able to get any woman he wants and he must also be able to answer this simple question in his joyus position of smarts. But, since this question is something, I believe, that cannot be answered he will go out thinking he will deffinetly find the answer, but will return with the wrong answer, since their is no one answer to prove this question correct. I think the queen might believe living in humiliation rather then being killed is a harsher punishment, especially to someone of the knight's kind and his daily actions.
Sang Eun
2. Come up with an adjective to describe the story-teller, the Wife of Bath, and cite a quotation from the reading to support your choice of quotation, and explain as necessary.
62 And so he took his leave and went his way.
63 He sought out every house and every place
64 Wherein he hoped to find that he had grace
65 To learn what women love the most of all;
66 But nowhere ever did it him befall
67 To find, upon the question stated here,
68 Two, persons who agreed with statement clear.
The story-teller is descriptive. Like from the quotation, the story-teller is telling the story in order; what happened first, then what came next, etc. He is describing and explaining the events in order. He is also telling sort of like a cause and effect of the events. I think he is telling the story in understandable way for the readers. He is telling the story in a third person so he doesn't sound like he is part of the story.
5. Why might a culture be interested in the question of "what thing it is that women most desire"? Do you think our own culture is interested in the question?
I think a culture would be interested in the question of "what thing it is that women most desire" because everyone wants to make women happy. They make up most of population and have a lot of influence in the world. And plus the men are all over them and treat them like a queen and they want to know what will make them happy so that the women will like them back. Plus women like to be treated well and want the men to figure out what it is that they desire most. Women are also seductive beings because they will not just give the answer to the men, they want the men to go out and search for the answer on their own.
And yes I do think our own culture is interested in the thing that women most desire. It is actually all over newspapers and magazines. Its a great marketing deal and it makes a lot of money. Men want to make their woman happy so they will go out and buy a book about it or read a magazine article about it. Even though that the things that the article are telling the men to do most likely won't work, they still buy them anyway in a desperate effort to make their woman happy to ultimately make them happy. When their women are happy, the men are happy also.
4. Why might the Wife of Bath herself be interested in the question of "what thing it is that women most desire?"
I think it's because of how king had raped a woman. To teach him and give him some knowledge about what woman most desire. But on the other hand, it quiet does not make sense to ask this question to herself. Because every women in this world are very different. Some people may be the same but most of women in this world are somewhat different.
Heather Rhee
Q5.
A
I agree with Christy that this question will interest the cultures in this world. I just have another reason to add to support this idea that this question is interesting for a culture. Old days, men were treated in a better way in most of the societies. Still, we sometimes seperate people into male and female and treat them in a unfair way. However, in most of the cases, people are working hard for the equality of both sexs. To treat women in a better way, people have to know what they want. Thus, this question is interesting for a culture because the answer of this question will help people to treat women in a better way.
5. Why might a culture be interested in the question of "what thing it is that women most desire"? Do you think our own culture is interested in the question?
I think every single culture in the world is interested in the question of woman's greatest desire, especially cultures who are governed by a patriarchy. Although men, historically, have always been in control, women, let's face it, have us on emotional leashes. A man's need to please a woman is often his greatest desire in life, and a step towards understanding women in general. A man who sexually takes advantage of any woman is blatantly oblivious and horribly disrespectful, and I think in the context of this tale, they are trying to prove to him exactly how wrong his actions were: if he doesn't have any idea what a woman really wants, how should he know that a woman wants him touching her? Truly, this question is important because it's the single one any guy would give a limb to know the answer to.
Ka Yeon Nam
Question 5
Why might a culture be interested in the question of "what thing it is that women most desire"? Do you think our own culture is interested in the question?
I agree with Christy that every culture is interested in the question of "what thing it is that women more desire". In class, Mr.Durning told the class that when he was young, every men treated women almost praising them and that it was normal and must-do thing to hold the door of women to go in. Our culture right now does not do the same thing, but every culture seems to be interested in what women most desire. Like Christy said, it is all over magazines. There are so many magaizes about clothes, make-up that women love. When thinking about relationships between men and women, many times, men are the ones to ask women out, so men will want to know more about what women likes. There are so many things men do not know about women and obviously the world would want to know more and more about what women really wants.
Yeena Sung
4. Why might the Wife of Bath herself be interested in the question of "what thing it is that women most desire?"
I believe the queen aroused this question in order for the men that raped a woman to realize what he has done by emphasizing women’s values and their desire. However, I think the queen herself couldn’t find the answer to it also even though she is a woman. I think that’s why she got more interested into the question and wanted to know the answer.
1. Why do you suppose the queen and her ladies beg Arthur not to execute the knight who has molested the woman? What do the queen and her ladies stand to gain?
- Even though the knight raped a maiden, he does not get killed by the law. The queen and her ladies, rather than urging king Arthur but begged him to stop. Then she asks the knight a question and to bring a answer for it. The question was "What thing is that women most desire?". I think the purpose of this question is to teach the knight a lesson by not killing, but feeling remorse of what he had done. By asking him what would women like to be treated. Also, the queen and the ladies could have been curious. They would have wanted to know why men would commit such incidents. They would have wanted to know what answer could a men think of the question. I think this is why the queen and the ladies stopped king Arthur from killing the knight.
4. Why might the Wife of Bath herself be interested in the question of "what thing it is that women most desire?" I think that the Wife of Bath would be interested if the question of “what thing it is that women most desire” because she thinks that in the knight’s mind it is sex. He raped a woman and so the Wife of Bath wants to make sure that he knows that is not what women desired. I think that is also an impossible question for him to answer so she sends his searching for something he may never even find.
2. Come up with an adjective to describe the story-teller, the Wife of Bath, and cite a quotation from the reading to support your choice of quotation, and explain as necessary.
I'd say there's a lot of good words that could be used to describe the Wife of Bath but I settled on the word 'vixen'. Her husband considers her the she-devil and she nags him all the time--> she lives to annoy him per se. I think she annoys him for pay back for raping her.
1.
"...'that you take me to be your wife. For well you know I saved your life. If this be false, deny it upon oath!'
'Alas!' replied the knight, 'alack, alas! I know to well that such was my promise. So for the love of God, choose something else! Take all my goods and let my body go.'
'Never! A curse on us both if I do! For though I may be ugly, old, and poor, I'd not, for all the gold and metal ore That's buried under the ground, or lies above, Be other than your wife, and your true love!'
'My love?' cried he. 'You are my damnation! Alas! that ever any of my family should undergo such foul degradation!'..."
She annoys the life out of him and the wife seems to be doing a very good job.
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