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Write:
In this essay, you will consider Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath’s Prologue and
Write:
In this essay, you will consider Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” as a possible medieval version of feminist literature, comparing depictions of love, marriage, and gender relationships in the Prologue and the Tale.
answer the following questions:
1. Does the “Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” present a version of feminist literature, or is it an antifeminist work that accurately reflects the values of its time?
2. What are the connections between Prologue and the Tale?
3. What is the purpose of each, and what do the two texts accomplish, both separately and together?
4. What is the significance of the riddle the queen poses to the knight at the beginning of the Tale?
5. How do the notions of authority and experience shape both the Prologue and Tale?
Reflect:
In writing his Canterbury Tales, Chaucer drew upon a variety of literary styles, characters, and tropes that were common during the medieval period. The pilgrims who are on their way to Canterbury would have been familiar character types for readers of the period: the Squire, the Prioress, the Wife of Bath, the Parson, and so on. In particular, these types appeared in a genre of literature called estates satire, which exposed corruption at different levels of society (the three medieval “estates,” or social classes of the period, were the clergy, nobility, and peasantry). In the Wife of Bath’s Prologue, Chaucer uses a style known as the literary confession, a dramatic monologue in which a character defends his or her sinful ways. Furthermore, there was a tradition of antifeminist literature at the time (Jankyn’s Book of Wickked Wyves was one), and Chaucer would have been familiar with St. Jerome’s antifeminist and antimatrimonial literature, texts which the Wife mentions in order to subvert them. (Jerome drew upon the writings of St. Paul to assert that celibacy and virginity were loftier goals than marriage, and marriage was merely a necessary evil.) The Wife herself is based on the character of the Old Woman in The Romance of Rose (a medieval poem that described and analyzed romantic love and established the tradition of courtly love). The Old Woman is a sexually experienced and cynical figure who teaches young people about love.
The Wife’s Tale forms an interesting contrast to the Wife herself. It is a version of the tale of the “loathy lady” (a kind of reverse, feminine version of the fairy tale “The Frog Prince” which appeared in numerous romances of the time): a princess is turned into an ugly woman who can be released from her spell only by the kiss of the knight. In Chaucer’s version, the knight must decide whether he prefers an ugly wife who is faithful, or a beautiful wife who may be faithless. The knight makes the wise choice, and the princess is released from her spell when the knight yields to her sovereignty in marriage. Thus, the ending of the Wife’s Tale affirms Alison’s own life and viewpoint: women should be sovereign in marriage. Yet both characters in the tale are transformed: the knight comes to repent for his actions (the crime of rape) and is convinced that true gentilesse (a term seen frequently in medieval literature) is achieved by actions rather than through social status.
Scholars continue to debate whether Chaucer’s Wife is an antifeminist descriiption of women, or if the Wife’s Prologue and Tale constitutes a critique of medieval gender systems.
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