In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath presents her bold views throughout the course of her narration. Her prologue provides insight into her real-life experience with marriage, which she seems to view more as a game than as a consecrated relationship. Per the Pardoner’s request, the Wife of Bath shares her stance on marriage through a captivating tale, in which she highlights the idea of gentillesse in her vision of an ideal relationship. However, even though the Wife of Bath’s tale seems to go against the patriarchal society of the Middle Ages, further analysis of the text supports the fact that she views marriage as an opportunity for personal profit and not for equality. Thus, her tale and prologue not only support …show more content…
These phrases refer back to the description of her in The General Prologue, which tells that she has had “five husbands, all at the church door,” and has pursued dominance in each relationship (GenProl 470). Rogers comments on the nature of her marriages, saying, “[she] used her inheritances from past husbands as well as her body in trade for new marital connections” (306). This quote provides a good foundation to interpret the Wife of Bath’s views. Marriage serves as an amusement to her, and she is able to manipulate men after she gives them what they want—sex. The Wife of Bath provides justification for her actions by saying, “God bade us to increase and multiply” (Prol WoB 28). She further defends her “serial monogamy by adducing scriptural texts that condone marrying more than once” (Ellis 345). Although she is technically not faithful, the Wife of Bath gladly exploits her “rich and old” husbands for her own gain (Prol WoB 197). The reader can see her ulterior motives as the Wife of Bath questions, “Why should I pay them heed and try to please, unless it were profit and for ease?” (Prol WoB 213-14). Before she launches into her tale, she acknowledges that she is sharing her views solely to amuse and not to offend. The reader expects to hear a story that is indicative of the Wife of …show more content…
The queen instructs him to find the answer to the question, “What is the thing that women most desire?” and gives him a year to do so (WoB 81). Through an unexpected series of events, the knight stumbles upon the answer and proclaims in court, “What women most desire is sovereignty over their husbands or the ones they love, to have the mastery, to be above” (WoB 1037-40). The story continues as the knight must learn to apply this principle to his own life to attain what he desires: a beautiful and faithful wife. Here, the Wife of Bath does not contradict her prologue and actually cleverly supports the sentiments found in her prologue. In the tale, the knight’s wife, an old hag, ultimately gains what she wants the most—power over her husband—just as the Wife of Bath desired sovereignty over her fifth husband, Jenkin. Jenkin held anti-feminist views and frequently read anti-feminist literature, so he neither believed that wives and husbands should be equals nor felt that women should be superior to men (Gray 489). Here, the wife of Bath is now seeking personal profit by finding amusement in chasing after what she cannot have—sovereignty. Even so, she recounts her fifth marriage with “jolly Jenkin whom I thought so splendid” as the best marriage (WoB Prol 628). She eventually gains this sovereignty over Jenkin after Jenkin feels guilty about