Semiology of Women Characters in The Wife of Bath's Tal Based on Judith Butler's Performative Acts Theory

Wife of Bath's Tale is a famous story from The Canterbury Tales. It is about a knight who raped a woman. In order to get rid of punishment, he has to find the answer of a puzzle: —what women like the most?‖ An ugly old woman saves his life, while putting a condition for giving the response. She reveals that women desire possessing men themselves. Then, she asks him if he likes to have a faithful wife or a beautiful one. As he asks for fidelity, she changes to a beautiful woman.

Conflicting signs in women characters such as looking for dominance and marriage while pretending to love and piety signifies being placed in a contradictory situation. At the same time, the emphasis on feminine rights refers to the proceeding current of women‘s awareness in the middle ages. Meanwhile, love works like a performative action which changes the order of customs towards more attention to women and a way to remove patriotic distinctions. Complicated plot of the story owes to a new outlook at aesthetics which using colloquial language, exciting tone tries to link romantic ideas to realism.