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Analysis of the Wife of Bath's
Prologue & Tale
 
      For the character Chaucer used to satirize the society in the 14th century, the Wife of   Bath, she is not only a beautiful woman but also she is smart and eloquent. Because she is smart, she knows well how to take advantage of her beauty and eloquence to hold her sovereignty over her husbands by continuing doing a professional wife.  As a result, even though what she is doing is the thing that most women view as simple and ordinary, she has done quite successfully. 

      Generally, the prologue and the tale contain two main ideas; one is the Wife of Bath' s defense for her five marriages and the other is her confession of her desire of sovereignty and the techniques she used to control her husbands. For the first main idea, Alisoun tries to use her own experience against scripture and it is an important implication of her mastery over man (because scriptures were written by men.) Alisoun has suggested several examples to argue for herself. 

Ex1. Experience, though noon authority   
       Were in this world, is right ynough for me.  

     Just from the beginning of the Prologue, the Wife of Bath claims that she believes that her experience would be more useful than authority, those scriptures.  It implies that she would never lower her head to the society that is controlled mainly by authority. 

Ex2. p.120 line132 ~ line140  
       I saye this, that they been maad for bothe- ~To purge urine, and eek for engendrure  
        p. 120 line 159  
      Whan that him list come forth and paye his dette  

     Alisoun explains that God makes human beings for 1procreation and pleasure and also by this way, women help men to pay their debt. 

Ex3. p.118 line 53 ~ line 57  

Whan my husbonde is fro the world agoon, Som Cristen man shal wedde me anoon. For thanne th¡¦Apostle saith that I am free To wedde, a Goddes half, where it liketh me. He said that to be wedded is no sinne.
     Alisoun uses her own example of having a Christian husband after her ex-husband die to persuade her listeners that her marriage is permitted by God; also, there is no exact rules in the Scripture that bigamy is sinful. 

Ex4. p.118 line 77 ~ line 78  

 And certes, if there were no seed ysowe, Virginitee, thanne wherof sholde it growe?
     Here, the Wife of Bath tells people the fact that if all the women are virgin, how could more virgins be born? 

Ex5. p.120 line148 ~ line154  

 I nil envye no virginitee:  
 ~I wol persevere: I nam nat precious.
     The Wife of Bath claims married women' s importance.  Though virgins are pured-wheat bread and married women are barley bread, barley bread is very useful; Jesus has used barley bread to feed people. 
 
    Then, Alisoun confesses her desire of gaining power over men and the techniques she has used to control her husbands.  Here comes 
the second main idea that women desire most the sovereignty over their husbands.  From the content, several lines show how Alisoun talks about her desire frankly. Actually, from her relationships with her husbands, it is obvious that she is satisfied with her first three old 
husbands though they are old and cannot satisfy her sexual desire but they are rich and are totally controlled by her.  On the contrary, for 
her fourth husband, Alisoun cannot control him by her body because he has mistress outside; of course, they do not have a perfect ending. Then, Jankin, her fifth husband becomes her most desired one because he doesn' t give her his whole love to Alisoun and he loves to look down women as calamity.  As a result, the less Jankin gives, the more Alisoun wants to get.  The following is some selected lines from Alisoun' s confession to prove her mastery over her husbands. 

Ex1. p.120 line 160 ~ line 165  

An husbonde wol I have, I wol nat lette,  
Which shal be bothe my dettour and my thral,  
~I have the power during al my lif  
Upon his propre body, and nat he 
Ex2. p.121 line213 ~ line221  
 They loved me so wel, by God above,  
 That I ne tolde no daintee of hir love.  
 ~I sette hem so awerke, by my fay,  
   

p.122 line225 ~ line234  
 I governed hem so wel after my lawe  
~Swere and lie as a woman can. 

Ex3. p.128 line519 ~ line526  
 I trowe I loved him best for that he  
 Was of her love daungerous to me.  
  ~Preese on us faste, and thanne wol  we flee.  
   

p.128 line531 ~ line 532  
 My fifthe housbonde¡XGod his soule blesse!¡X  
 Which that I took for love and no richesse,

    Compare the Wife of Bath' s prologue and her tale, it is obvious that her prologue is longer than her tale and in fact, it shows that the tale is only another presenting way for Alisoun to emphasize again that if women get sovereignty, things could get better. 

Ex1. p.136 line902 ~ line904  

 Til he his lif him graunted in the place,  
 And yaf him to the queene, al at hir   wille,  
 To chese wheither she wolde him save or spille.
     In the tale, women become the main characters and even King Arthur  respects the queen and let her to decide whether the knight should be sentenced or not. 

Ex2.  
     In the tale, women become the main characters to decide; also, the knight could not get the answer in the beginning but finally, he gets the answer from the old lady.  It seems that the knight¡¦s life is always controlled by women.  

Ex3.  
     By the day when the knight came back to the court to answer the question, the court was crowded with many ¡§wise¡¨ women to listen to his answer.  Here shows stronger atmosphere of women sovereignty.  

Ex4.  
     Finally, the knight still let his wife to make decision for him whether she would be a beautiful wife or an old and ugly but loyal wife.  He gives his rights of decision to her and at the same time, he is willing to be controlled by her. 

     In conclusion, the Wife of Bath, Alisoun controls the whole scene when she is telling her prologue.  Even though sometimes men like to 
add some personal opinions, she can make them shut up and continue to listen to her tale.  In her tale, she also wants to argue in defense of her beauty and youth losing.  Although she has lost her beauty and youth, she still has the desire of sex and sovereignty and she always welcomes the sixth husband to come so she teaches people not to look down old and ugly women at least they are kind and loyal. 

Reference Books 
(you can find the following books in CFL according to the numbers below the books)

1. Sources and Analogues of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales edited by Charleton B        (821.1Ca C393 Br) 

2. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath 
    by Sidney Lamb                      (821.1 Ca C393 La) 

3. Chaucer and the Subject of History 
    by Lee Patterson  (821.1 Ch C393 Pa) 

Go to Fu Jen University Library to check the reference books!!!
 
 
 		  
 
 
  Copyright Olivia, Patsy, Wendy and Phoebe 1999