What I should have made clear is that Madame de Stael and whether or not she even made the statement is irrelevant. The quote is a puzzle piece that points to something larger for me.compared2what? wrote:We like Mme. de Stael, even if she's no Mme. de Sevigne, and she was -- of course -- the most epigrammatic Swedish-by-marriage, Swiss-born woman (sometimes) writing in French of the 18th century, and tout comprendre rend très-indulgent, and so on. But that's not what the Wife of Bath's point is at all.
Nor is it either a very true or a very profound one, imo, although it's definitely a tenacious one. ("For contemplation he and valor formed/For softness she and sweet attractive grace/He for God only, she for God in him," and so on and so forth in that trademark justifying-the-ways-of-God-to-man fashion that makes Milton so annoyingly impossible not to admire no matter how big of a drag he is.)
The Wife of Bath asserts her power in the only ways she believes she can in her society, over men, marriage, and money. In portraying her striving, I believe Chaucer makes a perhaps ruefully, as you perceive, misogynistic statement, typical of his time.
The quote, IMO, may tell us superficially about the social construct of de Stael, but the point actually is more profound and even has to do with the cosmic feminine and masculine. Something to do with feminine power and masculine force. The reason it came to me, was your statement about feminine sovereignty (power).
I can't really elaborate as I haven't gotten much further with my thoughts about it.
and try to love some one!*
