The Wife of Bath's

In the prologue, the Wife of Bath establishes that she is an expert on marriage because she has had five husbands since the age of 12. Her tale, which continues the discussion of marriage, is about compromise between husband and wife. Though she gives the general idea that men must first give the wives sovereignty in marriage to get happiness in return. If not she knows how to manipulate them into getting exactly what she wants. This tale sheds some light on how Chaucer viewed women as extremely manipulative.
A selfish knight commits a rape after he is "overcome by lust." This is something a woman would never want from her husband. The knight is ordered to go on a quest to find out what women want most, in exchange for his life. He hears many different answers, and as his deadline approaches, he finally comes across an old hag. She tells him that she can give him the answer if he does what she will request in the future, and the knight agrees. The hag tells him that women want sovereignty in a marriage more than anything else. When her answer turns out to be right, his life is saved. The hag then requests that he marry her. The knight protests because she was very old and ugly. He marries the hag anyway and she asks him if he would rather have a wife who is beautiful and unfaithful or one who is ugly and loyal. The knight passively lets her decide for him. This turns out to be exactly what the hag (and all women) wanted. The hag becomes beautiful, which is what the knight (and all men) wanted. Their marriage becomes happy because they both compromised.
It seems like the Wife adds this story to back her point of view of how men should always obey their wives to stay happy. Even King Arthur hands over the Knights case to his queen and we see a happy ending for what would've otherwise ended in an execution.

Tale of Genji

In “The Broom Tree,” readers are shown the ideal qualities that men
looked for in women.  A collection of letters from rejected women
leads Genji and Chujo into a long discussion about finding the perfect
one. A few other people join the conversation to offer their own
opinions. Chujo seems very experienced and almost jaded, mentioning
that the perfect woman is very hard to find. Finding a beautiful woman
with a suitable personality is not enough. She must also be able to
run the household, uphold a good reputation, and come from a decent
family. Even these qualifications have certain specifications. For
example, if she comes from a decent family, they must not be too rich.
The men seemed to have detailed opinions on how a woman should behave.
“If she is a jealous type you may remember her or may lose interest
over time, if is she is skilled but not skilled enough she may not be
of good use. If she lacks jealousy she may have another man on the
side which over time one would lose interest in her. If she’s
stubborn, she may keep one’s interest for a while but if too stubborn
one may go the other way.” These are all pessimistic generalizations
and the men don't take into consideration different circumstances that
may arise with different people. For example,if a woman lacks
jealousy, it could simply be because she trusts her husband.

It is mentioned at the start of the chapter that Genji did not like
the promiscuity around him. His affairs were the target of nosy
gossips, but he knew it would be worse if he had no affairs at all.
This shows how society encouraged men to have many mistresses, and it
was probably expected that women would face rejection and heartbreak
often. Judging from this chapter, men seemed to view women as inferior
beings whose feelings did not matter. Most women were seen as
replaceable, and society reinforced this because adultery was
acceptable and therefore very common. Because men knew that there
would be no consequence in moving on to another person, they probably
wouldn't think to work on their relationships in a realistic manner.
This chapter reveals how the men long for a stable relationship with a
woman, but will probably never find her because of their (and
society's) unfair and unrealistic standards.

Man'Yoshu - Edited

Man’Yoshu is a compilation of ancient Japanese poems from the Nara Era. Most of the poems originally are written in “tanka”, which means “short poem/song” and has a set number of syllables divided into units, though the English translation we read does not conform to the original tanka structure anymore (Tanka Booklet).
Since the poems found in the Man’Yoshu were written by a variety of people ranging from unknown commoners to the emperors it provides us with a glimpse of life during the early Nara Era in Japan. It is quite apparent that these poems weren't written for some king's pleasure. They were expressions of the broken hearted: non-fictional tragedies. Or even excerpts from diaries people kept and logged their emotions in.
Most of the poems were based on themes of separation and death, hence contain sorrowful emotions. Kakinomoto Hitomaro, one of the prominent authors in the compilation, is a good example in how his poems were about separation from his wife, or of him seeing a corpse. "Does she not wait for you; worrying and longing; your beloved wife?" (page 2155). Kakinomoto's concern for the man's wife shows how much his own wife means to him. Which is quite unique since this is probably an actual man, unlike the other fictional characters we have read about, who truly holds the relationship of husband and wife as something irreplaceable.
All the Man’Yoshu poems contain beautiful imagery. Mostly of nature such as the beauty of mountains, streams and plants, specially the bamboo trees.
"O scarlet leave; falling on autumn mountainside; stop, for a while, the storm; your strewing makes; that I might glimpse; the place where my wife dwells"(page 2154). This sentence brings forth an array of different colors and textures to our mind prodding our memories, hence leaving us feeling somewhat like the author who is longing for his wife.
The story told in each poem can probably be summarized in just one word, hence I believe it was the imagery and the depth of emotion used in these ancient poems that sets them apart.

_______________________________________________________________________________


Man’Yoshu is a compilation of ancient Japanese poems from the Nara Era. Most of the poems originally are written in “tanka”, which means “short poem/song” and has a set number of syllables divided into units, though the English translation we read does not conform to the original tanka structure anymore (Tanka Booklet). The poems found in the Man’Yoshu were written by a variety of people ranging from unknown commoners to the emperors. The Man’Yoshu provide us with a glimpse of life during the early Nara Era in Japan. Most of the poems were based on themes of separation and death, hence contain sorrowful emotions. Kakimoto Hitomaro, one of the prominent authors in the compilation, is a good example in how his poems were about separation from his wife, the death of his wife, and of him seeing a corpse and ultimately himself approaching death. All the Man’Yoshu poems contain beautiful imagery. Mostly of nature such as the beauty of mountains, streams and plants, specially the bamboo trees. The story told in each poem can probably be summarized in just one word, hence I believe it was the imagery and the depth of emotion used in these ancient poems that sets them apart.



Nakamura, Hishashi. Ten Thousand Leaves : Tanka Booklet. 2009. Print.