The wife of bath's tale

1. The Canterbury Tales: “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” genre: Mock Chivalric Romance
Mr. Crick
British Literature (ENG III)
Mr. Fahey’s Notes
Quote: “Experience, even if there were no other authority in this world would be grounds
enough for me” (183).
Experience: This is the FIRST word out of the wife of Bath’s mouth for a reason. Her
prologue (and tale) is all about her and wrought from her own experience. She uses her
experience to critique her own culture and challenge the conventions of conservative
society. Unlike the knight, she does not get her authority from traditional sources, despite
that her tale also takes place long ago and far away, there is no citation to ground her tale
in the historical past. She is the second worldliest character, after the knight, though her
setting is chosen for an entirely different purpose than to legitimize and protect her from
responsibility, but rather to set the stage for her general criticism of “chivalry”.
Quote: “We don’t love a man who…watches where we go, we want to be at large” (197).
This emphasizes why Alison from the miller’s tale rebels so intensely to be contained,
controlled and cooped up by her jealous and insecure husband. The wife of Bath’s name
is also Alison, which is no coincidence. The wife of Bath consistently emphasizes that
women should have their own agency and authority over their own lives, thus presenting
a firm contrast and divergent perspective from the knight’s tale. The wife of Bath does
not support the conventions of the patriarchal society in which she lives; however, she
works this system toward her own benefit. She uses her womanly assets and plays the
patriarchal system to her advantage, ultimately gaining independence. She begins, when
young, poor and beautiful, to go after old, rich men in order to inherit their wealth. The
wife of Bath uses sex to gain wealth and power. She has three husbands like this, and
throughout maintains autonomy over her body and her wishes.
Quote: “God bade us expressly to increase and be multiplied” (183).
The wife of Bath quotes the Bible constantly in support of her position, demonstrated by
the quote above, a testament to her literacy and education. She feels sexually liberated,
sees sex as a fun, healthy and good thing that should be engaged in. She has five
husbands, welcomes the sixth (presumably a future husband) and admits to other lovers
as well.
Quote: “I don’t want to keep myself… entirely chaste” (185).
The wife of Bath gets around, and although she very freely sleeps with men she always
dictates the circumstances under which sex happens in her life.
Independence: In addition to her accumulated wealth, the wife of Bath is and
independent businesswoman, who successfully competes in the European textile industry

2. (against men presumably). She is a weaver, and continues to augment her wealth in this
way. Once she has enough money, she turns it around, and she goes after and decides to
marry a young stud named Jenkins because he’s sexy and young and she’s in love. In this
way, the wife of Bath demonstrates a bit the almost mercenary nature of her character.
Quote: “A wise woman will concentrate on getting that love which she does not possess
for my own profit and pleasure” (191-192).
These are her motivations in life, profit and pleasure, sex and money and she encourages
that a woman always be looking for something and someone better!
Quote: “Profit whoever may, all is for sale!” (201).
Though she makes this declarative statement, and means certainly that her sex is just such
a bargaining chip, she is always in charge of the transaction, whenever it should occur.
Social Rank: “I don’t care how poor he (Jenkins) is or from what class” (211).
The wife of Bath challenges the notion of social class completely when she marries
Jenkins. This is one of the most progressive aspect of the wife of Bath and is contrary to
the knight’s perspective, where he explicitly emphasizes the importance of social rank
and class status. Indeed chooses Jenkins, “for love and not money” (207).
Women: The knight thinks women only have a voice when they are crying and asking
things of a noble knight, otherwise they should have no agency or autonomy over
themselves, and therefore have no voice. The wife of Bath suggests, rather, that women
should be in charge, and explains that they want sovereignty and power over the men in
their lives, an opinion which is expressed explicitly in his tale.
Confidence: The wife of Bath is in total control of her life, despite the patriarchal
society. She is a strong woman and sticks up for herself every chance she gets. The wife
of Bath disapproves of the notion that women are the weaker sex, and is not afraid to
make her voice heard. She knows she has power, more power than any other pilgrim
except the knight, and will not be ignored.
Vanity: To the same point, she is quite vain, and spends twice as much time talking
about herself as she does on the tale she tells. She always wants the spotlight on herself,
and this is of course why her prologue is so long. The friar complains “this is a long
preamble to a tale!” (221), but that doesn’t slow down the wife of Bath; she keeps on
talking. She will NOT be silenced, in the prologue she explains that in church she is the
FIRST to give a donation, just so every eye can fall upon her. She is so vain, that if
someone else donated before her, she gets petty and refuses to donate that week. This
reveals that she only donates so that people can admire her and thus she is not really
charitable for the right reasons. The wife of Bath is extremely self-centered and needs to
be, or at least wants to be, the center of attention at all times.

3. Quote: “To him (Jenkins) I gave lands and property, but afterward I repented this sorely”
(211).
There is a hiccup in her life plan; however, when she marries Jenkins. Eventually, the
two get in a fight, and Jenkins knocks out the wife of Bath. He promises he will do
anything as long as she is all right, and then she awakens and tells him that what she
would like is her lands, wealth, and power back. When he consents, they never fight
again, “I had got for myself, through superiority, all the sovereignty…and after that day
we never argued” (219), and this is ultimately the point of her tale.
Setting: She sets the tale in the age of King Arthur, the king renown for his chivalric
virtue, and uses this context as the backdrop for her critique of the so-called honorable,
knightly code.
Chivalry: The very first knight we meet is terribly dishonorable. He is a classist, a
rapist, cruel and ignorant, even insulting the old woman who saves him. The wife is
suggesting that the code of chivalry may sound good, but knights (and perhaps more
importantly men) do no live up to these standards. This knight initially rapes a young
maid, then insults the old woman who saves him, then breaks his vow. All of these
actions would be considered dishonorable behavior for a knight. The wife of Bath wants
to expose the shortcomings of the knights, while attempting to amplify and improve the
perspective and position of women.
Quote: “women desire to have dominion over their husbands as well as their lovers, and
to be above them in mastery” (229).
The queen forces this knight to find the answer as to “what women want” he searches
high and low, but men don’t know and women won’t tell him. Finally an old witch
woman gives him this answer, which he brings to the queen. It is the correct answer, and
so she spares his life; however, the knight made a promise to the old witch woman that he
would do anything she asked if he kept his life.
Plot: The old woman then asks for the knight’s hand in marriage as repayment. The
knight laments; expresses that he won’t do this thing because she is so old, ugly and of
low birth. In this statement he both insults the old woman who saved him and breaks his
oath. The old woman then offers him a choice… either to take her old, ugly and faithful,
or she will transform herself into a beautiful young maid, but she will sleep around and
be terribly unfaithful. The knight is at a loss and doesn’t know what to do. In the end he
lets the old woman decide, telling her to do whatever she felt would be best. This is the
RIGHT answer, and proves the knight has learned his lesson and a great deal about
women. The witch woman rewards the knight by transforming into a beautiful maid
AND being faithful to him.
Quote: “find who is always most virtuous, privately and publically, and who always tries
hardest to do what noble deeds he can, and consider him the greatest nobleman” (233).

4. Nobility: At the end of the tale, the wife of Bath goes on at length about nobility and
what exactly it means to be noble from her perspective. She challenges the pilgrim
knight, saying that nobility derives from personal characters and honorable behavior (i.e.
anyone can be noble if they treat others with respect); in the end she expresses that
nobility comes from recognition of the divine in others and acting in accordance with this
understanding. She opposes the knights perspective and denounces that n0obility comes
from ancient wealth, bloodlines or heredity and claims one’s station in life comes from
their noble behavior and living like Christ himself (233-235):
·“Christ wants us to claim our nobility from him, not from our ancestors because
of their ancient wealth” (233).
·“Nobility not tied to possessions” (235).
·“Nobility…was in no way bequeathed to us with our station in life” (235).