The Canterbury Tales The Wife of Baths Tale
General Prologue
Introduction
The wife of bath is the most vivid character a character that goes beyond words
Her name is Alisoun
Note that this is not a documentary work in some ways it is a very realistic poem and
it touches some topics that surround us at the moment, such as the ideals of marriage
Alisoun has experienced marriage many times 5 in total
Chaucer lets Alisoun tell her story and it not Chaucer who is telling the story
It is a common idea not to mix writers and narrators
o Sometimes, writers write in censorship, so it allows them to speak more freely
when they say that a narrator is speaking, not them
o There are some writers who have a strong biographical sense to them, but dont
confuse the narrator with the writer
Alisouns prologue is one the longest in the CT
It is her life story, and it is real tale that she tells everybody
The tale tells us more about her ideas about marriage and about her views of herself as a
woman in society
The prologue is divided into two/three parts:
1. Defense of Marriage, and the right of women to marry many times.
If her husband dies, she is allowed to marry another man.
In the face of a certain clerical church father at that time, St Jerome, she is
responsible for going against some words of anti-marriage.
She is trying to defend her position in society and her life, the way she has
lived.
She has her own version of things.
2. Her life with her five husbands:
3 were old men, describing them as good, rich her ideal sense of what
marriage is.
Her next 2 were men that were younger than her and were more
complicated.
3. The last marriage, to Jenkyns, a scholar at Oxford, renowned for being not very
prosperous, does not bring much money to the table (they were actually really
poor).
She spends most time talking about Jenkyns. They have a very tumultuous
relationship and is also the most important to her. This relationship is
rather weird. She trains him to become a good husband.
She begins the prologue with:
Pg. 257, Line 1-8
Experience, though noon auctoritee
Were in this world, is right ynough for me
To speake of wo that is in marriage: For lordinges, (gentlemen) sith I twelf yeer was of age-
Thanked be God that is eterne on live-
Housbondes at chirche dore I have had five
(If I so ofte mighte han wedded be),
And alle were worthy men in thir degree.
She begins by distinguishing her experience with authority (auctoritee).
o Authority is used by Chaucer is typically associated with church fathers, such as
St Jerome, whose truths are stated because of their authority, and they say how the
world should be
o The Latin root auctor is related to the word auction, and auctor is somebody
who can vouch for the value of something (the real price), its inherent value
o The wife is explaining her experience as a person who has married many
husbands she has her own experience, and she will guide herself based on her
experience
o The contention between auctoritee and her discussion of her experience is much
better is the beginning of the scientific method as something that can be
replicated this conflict between real stuff and stuff that is handed down from
elders is being engaged
o Much of the authority that she argues is against St Jerome, because he would
criticize her chastity and lack of virginity
o She is going to bash St Jerome apart, and she is going to reference the bible as
questioning Jesus
Pg. 257 Lines 15-22
Biside a welle, Jesus, God and man,
Spak in repreve [reproof] of the Samaritan:
Thou hast yhad five housbondes, quod he,
And that ilke [same] man that now hath thee
Is nat thy housbonde. Thus saide he certain.
What that he mente therby I can nat sayn,
But that I axe (ask) why the fifthe man
Was noon housbonde to the Samaritan
She is saying that Jesus is saying that sixth man is not her husband, what about the fourth
man, the third man, etc.
In the absence of any answer from Jesus, she assumes that they are all her husbands
Pg. 257 Line 26-29
Men may divine (guess) and glosen (interpret) up and down,
But wel I woot (know), expres (expressly) withouten lie,
God bad us for to wexe (to grow) and multiplye:
That gentil text can I wel understonde.
She finally gets to her point near the end of paragraph Her idea that procreation and sexuality, God wants us to do, and that is what she
understands
But does she have any kids the reason why she thinks that? Or maybe she has a really
strong sexual appetite, and that is why she is saying all of this?
She is a rather proto-feminist character because she is going for and against feminism at
the same time
Women always seem to have great answers for stuff if women came from men, and
men came from dirt, then women must be better than men because they are from humans,
but they are from dirt
This is tactic that women use to go against men and their word
She is trying to achieve self agency taking control of her husbands was a sign of this
This is an interesting commentary on the plight of wives and women at that time the
institution of marriage is against them, and they are still very smart people
She is also talking about the frailty of women at the same time
The argument she makes against the anti-feminist rhetoric is rather self serving than
correct in principle, and is something that is not idiosyncratic to her
The friar also rationalizes what he does, and Chaucer is telling us that this is what we do
we coordinate out desires with what society expects from us, and sometimes that comes
from a pictorial context
Be careful of describing her as a proto-feminist Chaucer is probably describing
somebody this weird for shock and surprise he thinks that everybody should be equal,
and he also thinks that we shou
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