1. The Wife of Bath’s Tale

2. General Prologue Description of the Wife of Bath
Bath is an English town on the Avon River
Seamstress
Expert on marriage
Married 5 times
Loves marriage and being physical
Indirect characterization: Takes pleasure in rich attire, talking, and arguing
Deaf in one ear
Gap between her front teeth (This was considered attractive in Chaucer’s time)
She has traveled on pilgrimages to Jerusalem three times and elsewhere in Europe as well

3. Prologue to the Wife of Bath’s Tale
Married 5 times since 12 years old
Her justification is that God never said don’t marry or sleep with different guys
Pardoner interrupts. He doesn’t want to get married and have a wife control him.
The friar complains about the Wife of Bath’s long introduction
The summoner criticizes him for interrupting, so the friar decides he will tell his tale about summoners, and the summoner will do the same

4. 5 Husbands Described 3 husbands were good; 2 were bad
First 3 good ones were old and rich. They bought her nice things, but she wasn’t intimately attracted to them. They were joyful when she said one nice thing, because she usually harassed and lied to them.
4th husband
Partier
He cheated on her, so she flirted to torture him
He died after her pilgrimage to Jerusalem
Janekyn
Clerk of Oxenford
She married him one month after #4 died
Notices his legs at #4’s funeral
He was 20; She was 40
He made her go deaf in one ear after he hit her in the head
She loved him most because he didn’t show his love
He restricted everything she did

5. The Wife of Bath’s Tale Genres
Medieval Romance- A tale of adventure in which knights, kings, and noble ladies, acting under the impulse of love, religious faith, or the mere desire for adventure, are the chief figures.
Arthurian Romance- Arthur, knights, and the court are main characters
Exemplum- A story that is told to illustrate a lesson or a moral