Canterbury Tales Essay - Wife of Bath as an Attack on Married Life?

Canterbury Tales - Wife of Bath is Not an Attack on Women and Married Life Feminists have proposed that the Prologue of the Wife of Bath is merely an attack on women and married life. The Prologue is spoken by a woman with strong opinions on how married life should be conducted, but is written by a man. It is important to examine the purpose with which Chaucer wrote it. This is especially so as many of the pilgrims in The Canterbury Tales condemn themselves out of their own mouths, such as the Monk and the Friar. While the Wife spends most of the Prologue arguing in favour of the deceit and deviousness that wise wives will execute, the argument is often illogical and can approach ridiculousness in its vehemence. Are we to agree with the views that the Wife of Bath puts forward so strongly, or does Chaucer present her as a caricature of every negative quality women are traditionally guilty of?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A great deal of the Wife's Prologue is spent in her narration of the tirades that she subjected her first three husbands to, largely a list of accusations made by anti-feminists of women, and the Wife's spirited responses. The Wife's replies defend women's behaviour -- if a husband has enough sex from his wife, she says, he should not care "How mirily that othere folks fare". She attacks scholars who accuse women of all manner of vileness by asking "Who peynted the leon, tel me who?" and that because scholars (Mercurie) and women (Venus) are diametrically opposed, "Therfore no womman of no clerk is preysed." However, while it is clear that the Wife is on the side of fellow females, in a logical sense the Wife's arguments are not particularly effective against the anti-feminists' view that women are as vain as cats, as sex... ...ties of lechery and unscrupulousness; that is why Chaucer writes about her. By allowing both her and Jankyn bliss when he finally surrenders power to his wife, Chaucer does not appear to disapprove of this state of affairs on principle. The Wife of Bath is, however, a psychological study of a powerful, sexual woman and a speculation on what such a woman's life might be like. It is clearly one that intrigued Chaucer, as can be seen from the length of the prologue, which dwarfs all the others by comparison. Chaucer's aim in writing this prologue appears to have been the presentation of a character so strong, she approached a force of nature, rather than an attack on women and their conduct in married life. Work Cited Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. Ed Mack, Maynard et al. W. W. Norton and Co. New York, NY. 1992.

Never Ever Give Up on Life Essay

Never ever give up on life! No matter how hard life gets. Everyday one is faced with problems, some are worse than others. Just because one thing in life goes wrong doesn’t mean you are to stop and just shut the book. One is supposed to use that as a lesson and keep flipping pages on the book. God put us all on this Earth for a reason. Everyone was made to do a little or major change in this world. Throughout those obstacles we face everyday is how people will insult us and try to bring our self-esteem down to the ground. But no don’t let that happen, we are beautiful so don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Relationships! That’s another thing that can mess up a lot of people’s brain. Just because your boyfriend/girlfriend left you, doesn’t give you the right to take your life away. You are worth much more than that. Trust me! God created a soulmate for all of us, but it’s on us to go out and search for it. Don’t literally mean go flirt with a thousand people but talk to others get to know them better and determine what they really mean to you and where they stand at. But like I said giving up on life because your partner left you is not a great idea for he/she is happpily going on with their life. Don’t you think if they actually felt a little remorse or something they would’ve maybe came back to you or even considered to apologize or something. So my only word of advice is never ever ever give up on life regardless of how bad the circumstance is.

Emotional Intelligence – Summary

February 10, 2013 ASMT W4b (R) ASMT W4b  (R) Why Emotional Intelligence Is Not Essential for Leadership C6 p. 171 Mitch McCrimmon, the author of â€Å"Why Emotional Intelligence Is Not Essential for Leadership†, presents an argument contrary to that of Daniel Goleman’s claim that leaders must be emotionally intelligent to be effective. He even ventures as far as calling Goleman’s theory harmful. â€Å"The bottom line is that emotional intelligence is more important for management than leadership† (Rowe, 2013, p. 172). McCrimmon begins his argument referencing great leaders like Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandi, and Nelson Mandela.Each of these men has influenced others with their passion to eradicate unfairness. They convinced those who can make decisions to favor their ideas. â€Å"They aimed their cry at their respective governments and the population at large . . . but none of them managed the people responsible for making the policy changes that th ey were promoting† (Rowe, 2013, p. 172). They were bottom-up leaders. McCrimmon makes this point in order to simplify and redefine leadership to â€Å"the successful promotion of new directions† (Rowe, 2013, p. 172).This simplified definition of leadership allows for the promotion of better ideas in an environment where the leadership role shifts from person to person as ideas are developed. As justification for his new definition, McCrimmon claims that the traditional concept of leadership is founded within the confines of the managerial framework, not in those who lead outside of managerial roles. Returning to the topic of the article, the author contends that â€Å"emotional intelligence is critical for management, though not so for leadership† (Rowe, 2013, p. 174).From the beginning, emotional intelligence should have been associated with management, but â€Å"a scapegoat was needed to blame for the failure of Western businesses to cope with Japanese competi tion, and management was fingered for this role† (Rowe, 2013, p. 174). With management now the â€Å"bad guy†, emotional intelligence became associated with the â€Å"good guy† – leadership. Emotional intelligence has its place among management and only a situational role in leadership. It is important for executives and managers because they have many responsibilities involving the welfare of others.Managers need high emotional intelligence to succeed. However, creative and innovative non-managers, those wanting to challenge the status quo, do not need emotional intelligence in order to convince others of their ideas and be effective leaders. â€Å"The power to lead is increasingly knowledge based and is less about personality and character. Conversely, emotional intelligence is essential for all managerial roles† (Rowe, 2013, p. 175). McCrimmon concludes his argument with call for organizations to cultivate bottom-up leadership, especially organiz ations dependent on constant innovation. If potential leaders are told to keep quiet until they become emotionally intelligent, they may well say good-bye before they gain the necessary maturity† (Rowe, 2013, p. 175). He implores those in management positions to relinquish their monopolies on leadership in order to grow and encourage bottom-up leadership. Empower others to be leaders. References Rowe, G. , & Guerrero, L. (2013). Cases in leadership. (3rd ed. ). Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publishing.