In The Prologue to The Wife of Bath, we see countless suggestions to Christ and Christianity. The Christian mode dominates the passage. The Wife of Bath seems to have no problem going against the Christian ways that her society abides by, "In the end, I got the better of them in every way, by trickery, or force, or some other thing." When I read this line the first thing that came to my mind was the idea of witchcraft that is commonly associated with Christianity around this time in England. But why? would she be telling these men about all of the trickery she has done to her five husbands? Growing up in a Catholic family and raised in the Catholic school system through high school, I could not help but think of this as the sacrament of Reconciliation, where one would recall their sins in front of a priest in order to be forgiven.
As I stated and roughly answered earlier, one of my questions is why is she telling these men of her trickery? Another that comes to mind is, who does she appear to be talking to while she is writing or reciting this?
I had a similar reaction when I read this, which is the prologue was based around christianity, but the wife was not. While the wife lived in a time period that having more than one marriage was very frowned upon she never showed us, the reader that she cared about what is socially acceptable. In my opinion the wife symbolized change for women's role in society, because she is going against all that the women in her time period know, and rely on. I like the line you chose to highlight because I would of never connected that to witchcraft, though that is a huge possibly due to the time era. I feel she is telling the men of her trickery because she already has so much control that she knows they won't leave her. The whole story to me worked around two key roles, Christianity and control. While the wife had so much control in her relationships she didn't have to worry about Christianity, and back then it was rare for women to "dominate the relationship" in a way as she demonstrated. As far as the second question goes I am not sure either I imagined an open audience of people, maybe to society in general?
ReplyDeleteJoe, I love the idea of interpretting this as a sacrament of reconciliation or confession. The prologue certainly has a confessional tone, although I am not sure she is upset about her decision to manipulate (maybe even kill) her many husbands. I like your use of a quote to support your discussion, but your post comes up short lengthwise (and is repetitious with the question being stated twice). Remember, the discussion (before the questions) should be at least 200 words (yours clocks in around 150 words). Keep developing your ideas or maybe look at two interesting passages instead of one.
ReplyDelete