Chaucer's narrator briefly describes the Wife of Bath in the General Prologue to
The Canterbury Tales. In the Prologue to the Wife of Bath's own tale (pages 257-74), he lets her tell her own story. Today's question is this: In her Prologue, does Chaucer reveal a fictional character that readers are meant to
laugh at, or to
admire? Or is she a mixture--a comic character with some admirable qualities? (Remember the rules for posting: For full credit, your comment must be 250-300 words long and must be posted before our class on September 12. In addition, you must include at least one substantial quotation from the text to back up your answer, and unless you are the first person to post you must refer to the comment of another classmate. (Saying, "As so and so said, . . ." is not really a reference. Enlarge upon another comment, or disagree with it, and tell why.)
I strongly feel that Chaucer included Wife of Bath merely to make fun of women like her. Although, she does have power and control over her husbands, she gets the power and control from making up accusations to get her way. Back in the middle ages when these tales were written, women did not have much of a role in society except being wives, nuns, cooks, etc. They were often portrayed as superficial and unfaithful women. For example, "And thereby follow him; no, this was for The ones desiring to live perfectly--And by your leave, my lords, that isn't me.For I'll bestow the flower of my life In all the acts and fruits of being wife" (110-114). Wife of Bath uses her sexuality in numerous ways to get what she wants from her husbands and sees nothing wrong with using her sexuality as a bribe. Chaucer is definitely mocking women like her at this point. Wife of Bath states, "In wifehood I will use my instrument As freely as my Maker has it sent.
ReplyDeleteIf I hold back, God bring me misery!
My spouse shall have it day and night, when he
Desires he may come forth and pay his debt" (149-153). Wife of Bath does not seem to cherish marriage as sacred. She seems to use marriage for money to pay off debt. This is comical to Chaucer for many ways. In the middle ages, men were thought to have control over their wives. Wife of Bath actually controls her husbands. She "holds out" until her husbands will agree o pay her and give her what she wants, only then will she use her "instrument."
Chaucer includes her in his tales to add comedy to this story. He wants the readers to laugh at her stupidity and craziness. In the tale, Wife of Bath sees herself as smart for what she is doing and this proves even more so that Chaucer looks at her as a idiot, basically. The only readers that would admire Wife of Bath would be feminists. Which, during this time, there was not many of them, if any.
I disagree strongly with the previous poster. While the Wife of Bath is a comical character, outspoken and almost manish, she is quite smart and learned in the church. I admire her stance on marriage and for believing in her life choices as they were not a popular opinion with the church at the time. I think modernmyth91 read the paying of the debt wrong. While I do believe the Wife is interested in her financial stability as given by her husbands, there are other debts she mentions throughout the prologue. In the quoted passage about the husband being able to come forth and pay his debt, the Wife means he can come for and have sex with her when he wishes. This is shown in a passage prior to that:
ReplyDelete129 Why sholde men elles in hir bookes sette
Why else should men set in their books
130 That man shal yelde to his wyf hire dette?
That man shall pay to his wife her debt?
131 Now wherwith sholde he make his paiement,
Now with what should he make his payment,
132 If he ne used his sely instrument?
If he did not use his blessed instrument?
133 Thanne were they maad upon a creature
Then were they made upon a creature
134 To purge uryne, and eek for engendrure.
To purge urine, and also for procreation.
The Wife of Bath enjoys performing her “wifely duties” for her husband. She does not want to be a virgin. She admittedly gets married over and over again so that she will be in the right to have sex. The Middle Ages did not have sexually free society. The only way she could have sex properly and in the bounds of church law was in the bonds of marriage. At the time, the church wanted people to only marry once period, and the Wife shows how flawed this way of thinking is biblically. She may not have been the easiest wife to be married to, but it seems she put her all into certain aspects. She also says this is the way through which she owns her husbands completely. The funniest portion of this is when the Pardoner interjects his comment. The last few lines seems to change his mind from wanting a wife to not. I don’t think he wanted to be owned. One last thing, the Wife is knowledgeable in scripture, but she does tend to pick and choose what she wishes from them.
I agree with Hiro Protagonist. Throughout the tales so far, Chaucer is very satirical when he dislikes a character. The Prioress, for instance, was portrayed to be a wonderful human being, but when closely examined we saw the huge flaws in her morals. The Wife of Bath, however, is put on display for the entire audience. There is nothing about her character hidden. She is a proud, boisterous woman who is not afraid to share her beliefs. The way Chaucer writes of her, I think that he found it amusing to create a character that is so different from every other politically correct woman at the time. While the explicitness of the Wife of Bath’s tale is very shocking when deciphered, it is very light-hearted and playful. This is another reason why I believe that Chaucer isn’t scrutinizing the woman as he did the Prioress. ModernMyth91 talks about how she “uses her sexuality in numerous ways to get what she wants from her husbands and sees nothing wrong with using her sexuality as a bribe.” I could not disagree with this more. If ModernMyth91’s ideas were true, she would not have bother to sleep with her first husbands who were too old to sleep with her:
ReplyDelete“They had me yeven hir gold and hir tresoor;
Me neded nat do lenger diligence
To winne hir love, or doon hem reverence.
They loved me so wel, by God above,
That I ne tolde no deyntee of hir love!”
She had already received their love, property, and money, yet she still continued to work for sex. Obviously, she did it for pleasure not for gain. In response to the prompted question, I believe that Chaucer admired her light-heartedness and her ability to speak her mind without the fear of judgment. The Wife of Bath, unlike most of the other characters we’ve studied so far, was unafraid of societal judgment and repercussions.
At first I believed that the Wife of Bath was only meant for satirical entertainment to represent the fickleness and manipulative ways of women but by the end of her introduction she reveals how much she has been through and shows much more psychological depth. This makes me admire her at least as equally as I am entertained by her. The admiration, however, is not all together positive. It is more just being impressed by her gall to be so bold to act this way during her time.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Hiro protagonist. I am really impressed at how strong she is and is very ahead of her time when it comes to her strength despite the feminine roles of the time. Im also interested in what Hiro said about her wanting to be married so that she can have sex without scorn. I did not realize that on my own but now that I look back at the literature she does spend a lot of time justifying her sleeping with five husbands. She even brings up how men are not held to the same standard biblically when it comes to bigamy and sex.
“I governed hem so wel after my lawe/ that eech of hem ful blissful was and fawe/ To bringe me gaye things from the faire” Line 225. It is half impressive and half entertaining that she is so pleased with the way she treats her husbands so poorly. She knows however, that in order to survive domestically with a difficult husband
“Ye wise wives, that conne understonde/Thus sholde ye speke and bere him wrong on honde/ For half so boldely can ther no man/ Swere and lie as a woman can” Lines 231-234. Chaucer is possibly also poking fun at how devious women were thought to have been back then and uses the Wife of Bathe to embody it. This is when Chaucer means for her to be entertaining.
At first I believed that the Wife of Bath was only meant for satirical entertainment to represent the fickleness and manipulative ways of women but by the end of her introduction she reveals how much she has been through and shows much more psychological depth. This makes me admire her at least as equally as I am entertained by her. The admiration, however, is not all together positive. It is more just being impressed by her gall to be so bold to act this way during her time.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Hiro protagonist. I am really impressed at how strong she is and is very ahead of her time when it comes to her strength despite the feminine roles of the time. Im also interested in what Hiro said about her wanting to be married so that she can have sex without scorn. I did not realize that on my own but now that I look back at the literature she does spend a lot of time justifying her sleeping with five husbands. She even brings up how men are not held to the same standard biblically when it comes to bigamy and sex.
“I governed hem so wel after my lawe/ that eech of hem ful blissful was and fawe/ To bringe me gaye things from the faire” Line 225. It is half impressive and half entertaining that she is so pleased with the way she treats her husbands so poorly. She knows however, that in order to survive domestically with a difficult husband
“Ye wise wives, that conne understonde/Thus sholde ye speke and bere him wrong on honde/ For half so boldely can ther no man/ Swere and lie as a woman can” Lines 231-234. Chaucer is possibly also poking fun at how devious women were thought to have been back then and uses the Wife of Bathe to embody it. This is when Chaucer means for her to be entertaining.
I agree with Modernmyth91. I believe that Chaucer created the character, Wife of Bathe, as mere humor. Although 901 made some good points about how Chaucer portrays the Wife of Bathe as a strong, outspoken woman, these characteristics weren’t appreciated as such during the middle ages. The Wife of Bathe was a woman who had different beliefs in comparison to all other woman. She doesn’t believe she should be shunned for having many husbands, she believes that woman should receive the same respect and morals to live by as a man do. What makes this character so interesting is that she is perceived as a "wicked woman" in the eyes of church folk, but she walks the streets proud and unashamed. I believe the Wife of bathe is a comic character that has attributes to be admired. She is a woman that doesn’t fear criticism from others. She stands proud of her actions and beliefs about sex and marriage. She is humorous in the sense that she is a woman that answers to no one, in those times woman had standards to which they must live by, but the Wife of bathe didn’t believe those standards should apply to her, she made her own rules which makes her admirable by other woman. She admits to using sex as a weapon of control over men and usually in exchange for money. Chaucer doesn’t explicitly try to deem the wife of bathe as an unruly character, but he makes it known when the wife of bathe justifies her indifferent sexuality by saying:
ReplyDelete28 God bas us for to wexe and multiplye: That gentil text can wel understonde
This text shows that the Wife of Bathe is very bold on her beliefs that God wants everyone to unite and procreate. She uses the word of God to justify her promiscuous beliefs and actions.
- Esperanza
As Feathery Friend said I was also fooled by the context of the Wife of Bath. I believed she was someone to laugh at until he started to mention her own meaningful opinions and thoughts. My opinion of her changed throughout the prologue but overall I believe she is a strong woman. At first she mentions that she had been at the alter five times to marry. She almost sees the humor in her multiple marriages. The way she speaks especially in this day and age for woman is bold. In lines 68-72 she asks "Or where comanded maidenhede He saide that precept therof hadde he noon." She is asking when was virginity commanded, she goes on to say that there was no instructions on it. Also as feathery friend said it makes me admire her.She speaks of procreation and the interpretation of it. She is obviously a woman who can stand her own ground and doesn't have to listen to the opinions of others. She brings up very conflicting points that even today people not see light in. She speaks of her husbands saying three were bad and two were good. This to me is humorous as she speaks about them. Her tales of her husbands were comical she had a wide variety from Oxford scholars to abusive awful men. Overall I think the Wife of Bath is a strong woman who has been through a lot of interesting life experiences.
ReplyDelete