“The Canterbury Tales” is generally considered one of the most famous works of early English literature. In his tales, Geoffrey Chaucer writes of many progressive themes and ideas that were unheard of in his age.
In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, Chaucer weaves an intricate story of a young knight in the age of King Arthur’s court. Through his use of characterization and symbolism, Chaucer crafts a tale presenting multiple morals at once.
The Wife of Bath begins the prologue of her tale by boasting of her experience in marriage. She pays careful attention to one New Testament story in which Jesus tells a Samaritan woman that she has had five husbands and that the man she is now with is not her husband (15-19).
According to Dr. Michael Delahoyde, the Wife misinterprets this story: “she believes the current man is the fifth husband and Jesus is invalidating the marriage because it’s more than four, which naturally seems arbitrary.” (https://public.wsu.edu/~delahoyd/chaucer/WBT.html)
The Wife brings up the case of Solomon as well, citing how he clearly has many wives. Through her citing of biblical references, she is attempting to validate her self-destructive tendencies in regards to husbands.
She is waging a war against the denigration of women, as well as against taboos against female sexuality.
In the Wife’s tale, she introduces the character of the old hag. By the end of the story, through the knight giving her the freedom of choice, she becomes both beautiful and faithful to him.
Whereas at face value this seems to be a classic tale of the moral “true beauty lies within”, some would view it as more two sided. According to Mary Carruthers, the message is that “ugly or fair, women should be obeyed in all things.” (http://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~chaucer/canttales /wbpro/carruth.htm)
This radical feminism was virtually non-present in Chaucer’s age, and to hold this viewpoint was punishable by death. The hag represents the wife herself, or at least how she wishes to be seen.
Though the hag has aged, she is capable of displaying all of the vigor and inner beauty of her youth if the right man comes along, just as the Wife did with her fifth and favorite husband, the youthful Jankyn.
“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is above all else a social criticism. Multiple aspects of the poem denigrate characteristics of both men and women, and the biased status of the world in that age.
Men are represented as “controlling and misogynistic”, whereas women are “gossipy and manipulative or, depending on your interpretation, as resourceful and outspoken, in tackling the inequality of their situation in marriage.” (https://crossref-it.info/textguide/the-wife-of-baths- prologue-and-tale/30/2064)
The Wife strives to point to the social inequality of her age through rather unorthodox methods. There is irony in her belief, however, as she argues forcibly against misogynist views of women but reveals herself as a violent, dominating woman.
In her tale, the Wife presents two symbols: The Knight, representing the sovereignty of all men, which may give way to the sovereignty of women, represented by the Old Hag.
Through the distinct social criticisms present in the tale, Geoffrey Chaucer hides a hidden meaning of “power”. In the tale, the knight deprives a maiden of power over her own body; his punishment, as decided by the women of the court, is that he must find out what women most desire, which turns out to be power.
This lust for power, and the equal ability for both men and women to wield it, is the central theme conveyed in “The Wife’s Tale”.
