The Wife of Bath’s Tale

Contention: The Pardoner mocks the wife Prologue Contention: The Pardoner mocks the wife “I was about to take a wife…There’ll be no wife for me this year” This is in response to the Wife’s mentioning her desire for a sixth husband

Prologue continued Shows that not all members of the group get along Underscores Chaucer’s admiration for the Wife by the Pardoner’s opposition

The Tale Theme: marriage Theme: “What women want” Character: Chivalry (the knight) Comments on the general treatment women received from other men, especially their husbands

Background Religion is set up to “fall” Friars have displaced spirits in lines 31-56 Women had been ravaged by spirits, but the wife suggests that friars are even worse Scathing commentary on the “morality” of the friars

Background Chivalry is set up to “fall” 59: “There was a knight who was a lusty liver.” 64: “By very force took her maidenhead” These examples are directly contrary to the values espoused by chivalry

Irony The knight was to be beheaded, but Fate intervenes: the queen The knight is saved by the queen and her court His next task is Herculean: discover “what women most desire” in a year

What Women want Honor Jollity and pleasure Gorgeous clothes Fun in bed To be oft widowed and remarried Pampered and flattered The variety of answers suggests that there is no answer Suggests that women are impossible to please

Midas’ Wife Line 119-120: “…vicious we may be within/ We like to be thought wise and void of sin.” Women have an image to keep up Pertains to men only—women know their true natures among themselves

Midas’ Wife Vicious: though Midas “loved her best,” his wife’s vicious nature superceded her own love Of Midas’ ears transforming: “she thought she would have died keeping this secret bottled up inside” Wife must gossip

The Secret’s Out The Midas story prefaces the secret to what women want The knight finds fairies who disappear, leaving an old hag Note that fairies are mentioned favorably

Secret The hag gets the knight’s promise to give her whatever she asks in exchange for the difference “And then she crooned her gospel in his ear” Crooned suggests intimacy; gospel means truth

Secret Revealed A woman wants the self-same sovereignty/ Over her husband as over her lover,/ And master him: he must not be above her.” Women want equality in the relationship

The Bargain Met The old hag takes he knight to be her husband This is the woman in “sovereignty” This is ironic for the knight, who ravaged a maiden at the beginning of the tale

The Bargain Met Line 248: “He takes his ancient wife to bed” At this point, the old woman teaches the knight “chivalry”

The Arguments These are the Knight’s reasons for not loving his wife Line 276-277: Old Ugly Poor Low-bred These are the Knight’s reasons for not loving his wife They reinforce his character as not chivalrous

Rebuttal: Low-bred Lines 285-293 The hag says that the idea of noble birth guaranteeing “gentility” The hag claims that deeds make a nobleman (gentleman)

Rebuttal: Poverty 355 Hag mentions that God approves of poverty This appeals to Chaucer’s audience, who would have been familiar with this Christian concept

Rebuttal: Poverty Claims that poverty is not shameful—indulgence and avarice are The poor are not missing what counts: being happy

Rebuttal: Old and Ugly The hag claims that these two attributes ensure that she is chaste The old hag will still satisfy the knight’s “worldly appetites”

Submission The knight finally submits He has a “loyal, true, and humble wife At the time of submission, he finds his wife young and beautiful

‘The Moral to the Story’ “cut short the lives of those who won’t be governed by their wives” Request by the Wife for all husbands The wife displays her real world intelligence