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Exploring The Wife of Bath's Tale

May 8, 2025

Notes on "The Wife of Bath's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales

Overview

  • Author: Geoffrey Chaucer
  • Time Period: Written between 1387 and 1400
  • Context: Part of a storytelling contest among pilgrims traveling from London to Canterbury to visit the shrine of Saint Thomas à Becket.

The Wife of Bath

  • Significance: Considered a proto-feminist work.
  • Character: One of Chaucer's most developed, outspoken characters.
  • Prologue: Twice as long as those of other pilgrims.

Key Themes

  • Women's Agency and Experience:

    • The Wife argues for the importance of life experience for women.
    • She has been married five times and claims the Bible does not prohibit women from remarrying.
    • Interprets biblical instruction to "go forth and multiply" as freedom to use her body as she chooses.
  • Double Standards and Gender Roles:

    • Highlights constraints on women's roles and identities in medieval England.
    • Critiques the limited power afforded to women, dependent on social rank and marital status.

Prologue Details

  • Five Husbands:
    • Three "Good Husbands": Rich, old, submissive.
    • Manipulation Tactics: Withholding intimacy, nagging, accusing them of infidelity (despite her own adultery).
    • Two "Bad Husbands":
      • Fourth: Drunk, kept a mistress.
      • Fifth (Jenkin): Kind in bedroom but physically abusive; forced to submit after a violent episode.

The Tale

  • Setting: Time of King Arthur.

  • Main Plot: Knight's Quest

    • Crime: Knight violates a maiden; crime punishable by death.
    • Trial: Queen offers pardon if he can answer "What do women most desire?"
    • One-Year Quest: Knight searches for answer; receives different responses.
    • Final Encounter: Meets an ugly old woman who provides the correct answer in exchange for a promise.
  • Resolution:

    • Answer to the Queen: Women desire sovereignty over their husbands.
    • Marriage to the Crone: Knight is forced to marry her as promised.
    • Choice: Old woman offers choice between her being old and faithful or young and unfaithful.
    • Outcome: Knight lets her choose, and she transforms into a young, beautiful woman.
    • Conclusion: They live happily ever after.

Closing Remarks by the Wife of Bath

  • Prays for women to have submissive husbands who satisfy them and that Christ strike down any men who do not.