Noah Senders
Professor Sarah Jacobs
English 151W
28 February 2011
The Canterbury Tales: “Chaucer’s Anti-Misogynist Wife of Bath”
In the Canterbury tale, the character known as “the Wife of Bath” has been a topic
of argument by many literary critics. Readers have interpreted the Wife of Bath as a
representation of either pro-feminism or of an expression of misogyny. Some argue that
she embodies many of the traits that woman-hating writers of Chaucer’s time attacked:
she is vain, domineering, and lustful. In the article “Chaucer’s Anti-misogynist Wife of
Bath” Kenneth J. Oberembt analysis of the Wife of Bath takes the side as an antimisogynist. Oberembt and the like would answer the misogynists that although Chaucer
portrays the Wife of Bath in such ways, Chaucer description of her are done with fine
detail and as she tells over her tale and portrays her life story, including her five
husbands, Chaucer goes into such depth and emotion. With such a description it is hard
to see her simply as a satire of an awful woman. In addition, the Wife of Bath’s
misconstrued and vulgar description could just be the cause of a strong female whose
only way to gain control in a male dominant middle age time was to be vulgar and
indecent. The “long lasting misogynistic notion (Oberembt 290)” has been that reason
(masculinity) has been the characteristic trait symbolizing men and sensuality
(femininity) is the trait characterizing woman. This article describes how the Wife of
Bath argued on this idea and proved that woman can gain masculinity and power where
men can also have a feminist side. At the time of The Canterbury Tales, it was an
arduous struggle that woman had to go through to gain control and rights in their own
households. It was considered unorthodox for woman to speak out and in general
woman had very little power. The author describes the Wife of Bath as a symbol and a
leader to these women. She is considered wise and her character was to teach females
how to gain power and to give them advice in marriage and in life.
The Wife of Bath was portrayed as a strong independent woman. She covered
herself in nice and expensive clothing described as "fine scarlet reed" and her shoes are
"moist and new." She has traveled all over the world, gone on many pilgrimages, and on
top of that has outlived five husbands. In Chaucer’s time, to be married five times was
unheard of. Women were prohibited to divorce their husbands and a widow was rarely
treated with respect or dignity, due to the fact that she was now without a husband. Not
only did the Wife of Bath not care about these restrictions but she was very open about
all her relationships with her husband. She told everyone how she only married her
husband’s (except for the fifth husband) for money saying, “"…I’ll tell the truth. Those
husbands I had, three of them were good and two of them bad. The three I call “good”
were rich and old. They could indeed with difficulty hold the articles that bound them all
to me; (No doubt my smile)…" (Chaucer 263-24).
Oberembt says that Alice’s love life is a clear example of her fight against
misogynists. He writes, “her marrying three old men in succession is a violation not only
of the law of common sense but even of the law of Nature. (Oberembt 288)” Alice’s goal
was to show that woman too can gain Reason and men can be Sensual, and she achieved
this by her complete dominance over her husband’s. She describes how she married all
her husband’s (except the fifth) for money and how she ruled over all of them. The chief
manner in which she has gained control over her husband’s has been in her control over
their use of her body. The Wife uses her body as a bargaining tool, teasing he husband’s
until they give her what she demands. According to the Wife of Bath, woman should
control the household and the husband in order for true happy marriage.
The wife herself was proud of how she ruled over her husband’s. She would boast
to the other pilgrims of how she would lie to her husband’s. For example, if her
husband’s got drunk she would say that they had an affair or they said other girl’s
names. As the guilt built up in her husband’s she would then demand and receive
whatever she desired. She also described how she would tease her husband’s with
withholding relations from them, until they would succumb to her wishes. The author
of the article wrote that in these actions she revealed her husband’s to be victims of
sensuality; they thereby forfeit the right to mastery, or Reason, based on male claims to
superior rationality. She expressed her views with infinite zest and conviction, with
such determined assurance in the correctness that no pilgrim can argue with her
logic; they can be shocked by it, but they cannot refute it.
One of the greatest battles the Wife of Bath had against the misogynists was
her fifth and last husband, Jankyn. Jankyn was the arch-mysogynist; He would beat
and hit Alice and he contained a book of wicked wives. Alice did not break and stood
strong against Jankyn. Oberembt writes, “By a judicious use of trickery and force Alice
compelled her hypocritical husband to abandon his masculine persona and to avow, by
destroying his book of wicked wive and by submitting to her own governance…”
(Oberembt 293)
The Wife of Bath stood strong on her belief that the head of the house should
always be the woman and that a man is no match for a woman. As soon as man
learnt to yield to the sovereignty of women, men would finally have a happy
marriage. The Wife of Bath showed clear, albeit extreme, feminist views and
although the author of the article and Chaucer himself might not even agree to what
she is saying but they both agree (or at least only according to Oberembt) that the
Wife of Bath is standing up and speaking up for what she believes in; woman should
have more rights and more control.
In Chaucer's time, the world led by the church was one big anti-feminist
movement. The church looked down on women who were promiscuous and lustful
and praised celibacy, which was the exact opposite of what the Wife of Bath stood
for. As Oberembt quoted Robert K. Root, for instance, who explained that Chaucer
“makes his creation demolish the cherished medieval ideal of celibacy.”(287) The
Wife of Bath would argue that people all over scripture had more than one marriage
partner and that if the whole world was filled with celibate woman, than the world
would cease to exist. The reactions of the other pilgrims to her life story attest to the
views on woman of that time period. Her doctrine on marriage is shocking to her
companions, evoking such responses that the single man never wants to marry. For
the Clerk and the Parson, her views are not only scandalous but heretical; they
contradict the teachings of the church. In fact, her views prompt the Clerk to tell a
tale of a character completely opposite from the Wife of Bath's tale.
The tale of the Wife of Bath is the climactic point where she finalizes her
views of female dominance and male femininity. The tale tells of an old hag who
saves a knight. The knight then becomes in debt with his life to the old hag and is
therefore forced to marry the old hag. The old hag gains complete control over her
youthful husband and even when they are married the Knight still takes the advice
of the old gag, and the result being that they live a long and happy life together. A
Knight who represents the quintessential man becomes dominated by this old
woman, who in turn represents the Wife of Bath. Another example in the story is in
the beginning of the tale when King Arthur submits to the rule of his wife, thus
abandoning both his headship of the state and of his family. The ladies of the court,
instead of the men, decide what is to be done with the knight and how he is to be
judged. This further corroborates Oberembt’s comments of the Wife's anti-misogyny
position.
Although she is argumentative and enjoys talking, the Wife is intelligent in a
commonsense, rather than intellectual, way. Through her experiences with her
husbands, she has learned how to provide for herself in a world where women had little
independence or power. This is the message that Oberembt and more importantly
Chaucer are trying to portray with the Wife of Bath. Woman can gain knowledge, power
and have Reason; moreover men can also be subdued and be Sensual. It is the Wife of
Bath who represents not only woman but Reason.
Works Cited
1) Oberembt j. Kenneth “Chaucer’s anti-misogynist wife of bath” PLMA
10.4 (Spring 1974): 287-302 JSTOR Web
2) Chaucer, Geoffrey “The Canterbury tales”, New York: Penguin group copyright 1969