Comparing the Wife of Bath and Shrek across versions

Wife of Bath's Tale And Shrek

Shrek and Wife of Bath's Tale - Comparisons and Contrasts

Shrek the Book

The original story of Shrek, by William Steig, published in 1990, is a far cry from the mega-hit Dreamworks movie production with the voices of Mike Myers, Eddie Murphy, Cameron Diaz and John Lithcow. In the original story, Shreck breathes fire, is not a likeable character at all, and he is hideously ugly. He has hairs on his nose and little black marks all over his face - possibly zits, or blackheads. He emerges out of a "black hole" when he leaves his family's abode to go in search of the princess.

He has the ability to heat food with rays from his eyes. The story is told with silly poetry such as the scene when he meets the princess, who is frightfully ugly:

Your nose is so hairy, Oh let is not tarry, your look is so scary, I think we should marry."

What was Chaucer's purpose in The Wife of Baths's Tale?

The Prologue of The Wife of Bath's Tale is longer than any other Chaucer prologue, and the theme that the female character (Dame Alison) presents is sexy, humorous, forceful and anti-feminist. She narrates in great and provocative detail about her first five husbands. The reason Chaucer has done this is possibly that he is taking a literary swipe at feminists.

Here he is, a man, writing these tirades from the mouth of a woman. Dame Alison says that if a husband has enough sex with his wife, he then should not worry about "How mirily that othere folks fare," meaning, as long as she spends enough time in bed with him, what does it matter that she sleeps around? The world should judge her not on whether her actions were wrong, but on whether they were effective actions.

In her narrative, she attacks scholars, feminists; she confuses bigamy with remarriage, and does outrageous things like invoking the Ten Commandments ("Go forth and multiply") while she herself has not given birth.

Why does Chaucer manipulate the original Shapeshifter folk tale from the middle ages? Likely because he has a political and social agenda. While Dame Alison says that her theme is that "marriage is a misery and a woe," in fact, she is saying that if the wife wears the pants in the marriage, the husband and wife will live happy lives. That thought is anti-feminist, and it appears that what Chaucer wanted to convey.