Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath”
Historical Background- Women
• Very passive societal role; inferior/obedient to
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males
Physical/emotional abuse
Had occupations–
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Tradeswomen
Baker
Shopkeeper
Etc.
• (Peasant’s wives- worked fields)
• Women also had household duties
Historical Background (cont)
• Gave up all wealth and rights to husband
in marriage
• Some joined nunneries/convents
• Widows- 1/3 of husband’s property
• Married women covered hair with
linen cloth
The Wife of Bath’s Tale
1. The Wife of Bath’s tale --opposite of the
Clerk’s Tale. It represents wifely
dominance, or “maistrye,” whereas the
Clerk’s tale describes wifely obedience.
2. The Wife of Bath’s Tale is about
transformation. An old hag becomes,
through magic, young and beautiful; a
nasty arrogant youth is turned, through
a lecture by the hag, into a husband
who takes other’s wishes more into
account.
3. Wife’s tale argues for social
transformation –
• the rich should act with virtue, not
arrogance, and
• the poor should see their state as a
blessed opportunity for spiritual
wellbeing.
From the Prologue, we find
out…
• Her name is Alison
• She is an authority on marriage, thanks to
experience
• She makes selective Biblical referencesvirgins, be forth and multiply, many wives
• Sexual power
• Pardoner interrupts
C. Marriage as Business Transaction and
Battleground
• Says one husband, Jankyn, tried to kill her
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for “my land”
reveals her view of marriage as a purely
business transaction; love is irrelevant
perhaps recognizes that as an elderly
widow, her main attraction is her wealth.
D. Experience versus Authority
• Wife says she places HER trust in experience,
•
not authority
she has been married since she was twelve
and “housbondes at chirche dore I have had
fyve.”
The “Good” Husbands
• She had three of them
• Rich, old, and submissive
• Torments
• Tell lies
• Bribes
4th Husband
• Had a mistress
• Lost her youth
• Tried to make him jealous
• Died on a pilgrimage
Jankyn
• Loved him
• Forbidden
• met while still married to 4th husband
• Half her age
• Mutual abuse- mental and physical
• book of wicked wives
• Lost hearing
• The fight between the Wife and
Jankyn is a literal battle between the
sexes
• she refuses to be cowed by the
citation of these authorities on “wifely”
behavior
• refuses to be degraded or
psychologically battered into
submission
• She literally strikes a blow
(hits him with the book)
for herself and for her sex too.
Allusions
• Incubi- got woman pregnant
• Ovid’s Midas
– has two donkey's ears
– Hidden from everyone except his wife
– Told the secret
– Barber
• Fairies, elves and incubi  friars and
mendicant
• Visited at night
• Ovid’s story of
Midas
• Says it was his
wife (not his
barber)
Allusions (cont.)
• King Arthur’s court- code of chivalry
• Ptolemy's Almagest- mentions erroneous fact
• John Gower- version of the same tale that was
– moral of the folk tale- is that true beauty lies within
– Wife of Bath message- ugly or fair, women should be
obeyed in all things by their husbands.
The Wife’s
Tale begins….
• Knight raped
woman
• Given one
chance to save
his life
•Discover
what woman
want most in
the world
• Heads towards group of women  one
old woman
• Says he must pledge himself to her
What DO women want?
• women most desire to be in charge of
their husbands and lovers
• asks the knight to marry her
• Shame at an
ugly. old wife
• Noble
character
hereditary?
• Either ugly and loyal?
• Young and unfaithful?
The Little Mermaid
What has the Knight learned?
•By trusting her
judgment=both
beautiful and loyal
Mockery- clergy
• Christ went only once to a wedding at Cana
• Jesus told the Samaritan woman that her 5th
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husband was not her husband
Old Testament figures, like Abraham, Jacob, and
Solomon, enjoyed multiple wives at once
God wants us to multiply
Some one needs to produce the virgins
Misuse of scriptures
Role of Men
• did he truly respect for the old woman or
learned how to supply her with the correct
answer?
• idealistic or cynical character, inclined to
mistrust all men
• Shallow transformations
• Punishment for rape
Role of Women
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Contrast in society over the roles of woman
danger of encountering an incubus
matriarchal society- Arthur's queen
Only woman can save him
Antifeminism in the Church woman
characterized as monsters
abandoned the male’s sovereignty in favor of
the woman’s rule
Full Summary
• The Wife of Bath’s, whose real name is Alison, tale begins with a
lengthy prologue detailing her previous life. She claims to be an
authority on marriage, thanks in great part to her great experience
with it. She has been married times since her first marriage when
she was 12. Many people have criticized her for this, supporting
their criticism with biblical evidence. In response, she starts to cite
scripture passages that she believes support her and her marriages.
For example, she says that many patriarchs from the Old Testament
had multiple wives. She then appeals to the reader’s sense of
reason. Virgins may be holy, but some must reproduce in order to
be the parents of these virgins. She then dubs her own gift to be
her sexual power over her husbands.
•
After a brief interruption from one of the other pilgrims, she
continues her story by recalling her marriage to her first 3
husbands. She describes them as good, mostly because they were
submissive to her will. They were old and rich, and she recaps how
she psychologically tortured them in order to get what she wanted.
She would tell lies to her husband in order to make them compliant
and to give her money.
• Alison then goes into her description of her two later
husbands, whom she dubs as bad. She views them as
bad because they were younger and wilder when she
married them, so they were not as submissive to her.
Her 4th husband had a mistress, and made her go
dancing with him. It was with him that she lost her
youth. While she was still married to him, she met.
Jankyn. She lied to him, telling her that she dreamed of
him, but he tells her that she will not marry him unless
she is widowed. Her 4th husband dies when on a
pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but she is not sad because she
already has her next husband lined up.
•
Jankyn, who becomes her 5th husband, is different
then her previous . She marries him for love and he was
poor. He always won her back when she was angry, and
she desired him when he was forbidden to her (when
she was still married). He had a book of bad wives that
he liked to torture her with. She rips pages out of the
book and hits Jankyn, who then hits her head. This leads
to her becoming deaf in one ear. She teases him by
saying she wants to kiss him, and then simply hit him
again. He then agrees to sign over his estate to her.
• The tale begins with a reference to faries and incubi. Incubi
were mythical creatures that were said to impregnate woman
in their sleep. The Wife of Bath says that the incubis have
become the friars, raping woman just like the incubi once did,
but not always getting them pregnant. Once, there was a
knight from King Arthur’s court who saw a beautiful woman
and rapes her. In this time, this crime was punishable by a
beheading. He was saved, however by the women, including
King Arthur’s queen. She proposes that the knight discover
what woman want more than anything in one year in order to
save his life.
•
The knight sets off in search of the answer, but every
woman he talks to answers differently. The answers range
from, money, to honor, to beauty, to sex, to the ability to do
whatever they want. Some also say that they want to be
considered secretive, though the Wife of Bath says that this is
impossible, which is proven by Ovid’s story of Midas. Midas is a
man who has ass’s ear underneath his hair. He begged his wife
not to tell the story, but she could not keep the secret in so she
went to a marsh and told his secret. If you want to hear the
rest of the story, the Wife of Bath directs you to read Ovid.
•
After this diversion, the Wife of Bath continues with the story of the
knight. He starts to ride home because his year time limit is almost up. On
his way, he sees a group of woman, so he rides towards them. As he gets
closer, the group disappears and there is only one old and ugly woman
remains. She asks if she can be of assistance, and the knight promises her
reward is she would help him. She agrees if he pledges himself to her.
Seeing that he had no option, the man agrees and she promises to save his
life. She tells him the answer, which he repeats to the silent court. The thing
that woman desire more than anything else is to have sovereignty and
mastery over their husbands. None of the woman of the court disagreed, so
he is spared. The old woman then asks the knight to marry her as her
repayment for saving his life. The horrified knight begs her to take his
material possessions rather than his body. The Wife refuses, and he is
forced to agree. The hag an the miserable knight are married and go to bed
the same night.
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The woman asks why he is so miserable, and he says that he is
ashamed of having her as a wife. She replies, questioning whether noble
character is able to be inherited. Though her own family is materially poor,
she argues that true poverty is in wanting things. She then gives him
options- she can remain old and ugly, yet good, or become young and
pretty, yet unfaithful. After a while, he responds that he will rely on her
judgment and she can choose. Because he gave women the sovereignty
they wanted most, the woman because both young and loyal, and obedient
to the knight. The Wife of Bath concludes the tale with a final stanza, asking
Jesus to send all women young men who are vigorous in bed, and that that
the women would outlive the men.
Citation:
• Created by Aileen Alber and
• Emily Baumgaertner