Question – The wife of Bath shares anecdotes from her private life. Is her story also applicable to universal truths
Geoffrey Chaucer is well-known for his 14th-century British poetry piece, The Canterbury Tales. The collection includes 24 stories, each relating to a variety of characters. Each tale is about a pilgrimage to Canterbury, which was a major pilgrimage site during medieval times. Even though the stories are all fictional, they are social documents that provide details about the society of the time. Chaucer’s Wife-of-Bath is one such fictional creation. Her prologue for her tale is one of the longest. She is proud to be a woman of integrity, boasting that she was married five times and that she also enjoyed sex without a partner. To justify her actions and subsequent events, she blatantly shares anecdotes from her private life, including the use of astrological symbols and biblical texts. This paper seeks to determine if her story also addresses universal truths. Chaucer provides a comical contrast in his portrayals. The wife of Bath is an undisputed controversial character. She overturns every expectation and presumptions with her pomp and show. Her portrayal is not that of a refined, delicate woman. She is a realist, complex woman who fights for her life, even if it seems harsh.
Wife o Bath is a story about her life that touches upon many universal truths. Wife o Bath begins the prologue by stating that “experience, even noon auctoritee Were living in this world is right y’nough for us” (lines 1 & 2). Because experience is subjective and truth objective, it is wrong to conclude that her words equate to universal truths. Through her harangue, the Wife Of Bath is questioning this notion of objectivity. She does not just share her views, but also her husbands’. She speaks out about the institution and abuses of women by society.
It is interesting that Wife-of-Bath is the only character mentioned in the book by her filial connection and not her occupational status in the society. This is an observation on how women are portrayed and described in society. It is not a recognition of her identity, but a simple acknowledgment of who she is as a mother, sister, daughter, or wife. This universal truth is the basis for her identity. Wife-of-Bath emancipates from this social network. She openly seeks freedom as an individual.
It is evident that she wants financial freedom. They all were wealthy and elderly. Both her characteristics, old and rich, worked in her favor. They would die earlier and she would inherit their entire wealth and property. She talks very eloquently about how clever she could deceive them, constantly lecturing them with false argumentation. She would then reveal that her drunken classmates had told her about women who are full of folly. They used her maid (lines 245-249). They would feel guilty and try to make amends for their actions. The Wife of Bath’s deceitful behavior towards her husbands is a sign that influential men in history believed that wives are never good enough. John Bromyard was a 14th century English preacher who stated that a sterile wife will cause the husband to suffer. Jankin, her fifth husband and constant reader of her anecdotes (lines 715-790), makes this clear.
The prologue also reveals that she insists on her sexual freedom. She especially says this:
“Myn Housbond shal It Have Bothe Eve and Morwe.
He will be paid his dues if he lists.
I won’t lette an housbonde, but I wol have a housbonde.
Which shal bothe be my detour or my thral
Have his tribulaciouns withal
I will be his wyf, he flessh.
I have the power to do all my lyf
“Upon his own body, he will be able to do so.” (lines 152-159).
Wife Of Bath quotes The Apostle Paul at end of these lines: “The womman does not have power over her bodi; but the husbonde has power over his bodi; and the womman’s power is not in his bodi but that of the hosebonde” (Wyclif’s Biblical, 1388). She insists on this last part and declares that her agreement to marry her husband makes him indebted. She is his slave and has full control over his body, including the right to use it as her sexual pleasure. This is a perfect example of how the text can be subverted. Although she does misquote the Bible to support her words, it is simply an assertion that the society only promotes the literal meaning of the Apostle’s lines, which gives women no control over their sexuality. Wife-of-Bath thus challenges the notion that men only have this freedom over women. This is also evident in her quoting from texts which support and propagate such truths. It also reveals another universal truth: texts such as the Bible are subject to interpretation, which can lead to incorrect or correct conclusions.
It is interesting to note that Wife of Bath speaks based on her subjective experience. However, her words resonate universal truths and challenge their authority. Chaucer weaves her personality using multiple threads, in order to portray the conflicted society that she has lived. She is complex and divided, living in a divided society that shifts on the questions that concern her. The Wife to Bath’s prologue is therefore a confession of self-destructiveness, resulting from the discord between religious and judicial ideals and the demands that everyday life brings. Through her sharing of personal anecdotes, Wife Of Bath is intrinsically concerned with universal truths about women and marriage, asserting and challenging them.
