In the prologue to “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” the wife
speaks of her past five husbands nostalgically, ignoring criticism from others
concerning the number of husbands by relating it to her knowledge of Jesus
Christ. I believe these stories reflected her views of the changing role of
women in relationships. She often mentioned the stories of the Bible,
referring, for example, to the hundreds of wives of Solomon. Before telling the
tale of the knight in Arthur’s court, she begins to transition into her own beliefs
on women. She refers to her three “good” marriages like so because she felt she
was in control of the relationship. She manipulated them into giving her what
she wanted by using her age, looks, drinks, and sex. Contrastingly, the one man
she was in love with beat her and did not treat her to gifts, resulting in a
“bad” marriage. Her story of the knight also reveals her beliefs towards women
in the relationship. The knight seeks the answer to “what do women want most,”
and it is revealed that women want control over their lives and relationships. The
story concludes with the old, ugly woman convincing (or manipulating, if you
will) the young, handsome knight to stay with her and kiss her. She does so by
simply promising faithfulness. This is an example of the woman taking control
of the relationship. These examples lead me to conclude that the wife believes
the role of women in the relationship has changed since Biblical times.
I do not
understand why the wife focuses so strongly on her fifth marriage. What is the
significance of this? Also, are the multiple references to bread meant to
symbolize something significant?
Taylor, this is a solid summary and discusssion of the Wife of Bath's perspective. You certainly work through the reading well (although we are only discussing the prologue today, not the tale). In future posts make sure to pick out some specific passage to analyze in greater detail. Less summary, more specificity, that will make a more interesting and less general post.
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