The Wife of Bath's Prologue

And Tales

THE WIFE OF BATH'S PROLOGUE

To justify her five marriages and to suggest that the thing women most desire is to complete control over their husbands. 1. A defense of her marriage 2. A confession of her techniques and a plea for certain reform for women. She uses two basic arguments: 1. If women remained virgins, there would be no one left to give birth to more virgins, 2. the sex organs are to be used for pleasure as well as function. The W of Bath can quote scripture to prove her points. Her prologue refutes the popular theory that women should be submissive, especially in matters of sex. And her argument is against the authorities of the church and state and that she is a woman who prefers experience to scholarly arguments.

• Dame Alison:
    -- amorous, nagging
    -- fun, practical, nice to her husbands--generous
    --Her love of life is also praiseworthy
    --Despite the loss of youth and beauty, she faces her future not only with a woman's ability to endure and enjoy what she cannot reshape, but also with a zest for life.
    -- frank: she tells the truth better than the pardoner.
    -- she uses psychology to manage her husbands
    -- she enjoys her past, accept the fact; a good nature

The Wife of Bath's tale

• This tale is an exemplum, a tale told to prove a point. And the reader should remember that the narrator is an old hag telling a story about an old hag who gained sovereignty over her husband.
• In Chaucer's time, the lit. was filled with the favorite theme of vilifying the frailty of woman. Chaucer's tale is not a moral diatribe for or against woman. He creates a woman in the person of the W. of B who both exemplifies all that has been charged against women but openly glories in the possession of these qualities. Chaucer does not make it clear whether he sympathizes with the Wife's opinion of marriage and celibacy, but it is obvious that he did not agree with the prevailing notions of his time about celibacy.  Usually a second marriage is considered sinful.  A revolutionary document!
  Also there was considerable praise for perpetual virginity. But if everyone practices virginity, who is to beget more virgins? The Wife of Bath pleads for the emancipation of women in the Middle Ages.
• The story matches the storyteller--consistency
• How does it fit the Wife of Bath (Why does she tell this kind of tale)?
  1. she tells the story to prove that everything will turn out well if the wife rules, if the wives have mastery over their husbands.
  2. She is attacking the establishment (the way things were, the church, the knighthood, the unholy friar). She is making fun of the unholy men, like the friar: "Women may now go safely where they like: They'll find no other satyr there but he: And he'll do nothing worse than take their honour."
  3. She wants to prove that women are not amorous as men thought at that time.  The wife's revenge: women at that time were thought evil, amorous.  
• The knight's ordeal/test (in old stories heroes solves riddles): to solve the riddle-- what women most  desire. His second ordeal: to choose between two--a beautiful but unfaithful, or a ugly, old but faithful wife.  He passes the test (by placing himself in his wife's governance and let his wife choose for him) and is rewarded: he gets a beautiful, young and good wife, and a happy life.
•   The knight is very rude to his old wife at first--a knight should not behave like this. He should be grateful that this old woman saves his life. She teaches him a lesson (leads the knight's initiation) which he should have learned before he becomes a knight: Poverty is not guilt; one should respect old age. It's noble deeds that make the nobleman; it is not wealth or rank makes a knight a knight.  
• Chaucer took his own idea about the knight, ill-behaved, ill-mannered (unlike other knight stories) The value of woman's sovereignty.  
• The story is suited to the Wife's own character psychologically and dramatically, for she, like the old woman, had wedded a young man--though unlike the old woman, she couldn't restore her former youth and beauty!

Study Questions on Chaucer II
On "Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale":

11. According to the anti-feministic theologians in the medieval church, what are the characteristics of women?
12. What metaphor does Wife of Bath use to describe the situation when man and woman are put together?
13. Why does Chaucer have such a long detailed prologue for the Wife of Bath?
14. Give a character sketch of the Wife of Bath.
15. In Wife of Bath's Tale, what is the point of telling us at the beginning of the story about the supernatural creatures and their disappearance later?
16. What do you think about Chaucer's arrangement of the change of the old wife's appearance and the happy ending?
17. What is special about the Wife of Bath's appearance and personality? Is there a connection between her personality and the story?
18. How does Chaucer use humor in the tales of the Miller and the Wife of Bath? Is there any difference in how he uses it in the two?