Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales. The Wife Of Bath's Prologue

The Wife of Bath's prologue is a frank autobiographical confession, with which she entertains the other pilgrims on the journey to Canterbury. If we look to her for clear and logical reasoning we will be disappointed, but we can admire the skill with which she attempts to persuade the listeners with her own individual and forceful style of argument.

Her main themes are marriage, and the importance of the actual experience of living as opposed to how authorities - particularly religious authorities - might deem that we 'ought' to live.

Experience, though noon auctoritee
Were in this world, is right ynogh for me
To speke of wo that is in mariage (1-3)

Some of her arguments, however, could be said to be valid as well as entertaining. The first subjects she deals with are the right to marry more than once, and the right to have sexual relationships for pleasure, and on these points she is arguing against the medieval Catholic church. She argues on the Church's own ground, that of biblical interpretation:

On marriage:

I woot wel Abraham was an hooly man,
And Jacob eek, as ferforth as I kan;
And ech of hem hadde wives mo than two, (55-7)

And on virginity:

Or where comanded he virginitee?
. . . conseilling is no comandement.
He putte it in oure owene juggement. (62...8)

But it is not the arguments in themselves which impress us but the fact that she is cheerfully and without guilt living what many would have called a life of sin, while confidently proclaiming that she knows more about what should and should not be done in life than one of the most powerful authorities in the land.

Many of her arguments, however, are unconvincing, and distort the truth. For instance, she refers to St. Paul to the Corinthians:

I have the power duringe al my lyf
Upon his propre body, and noght he.
Right thus the Apostel tolde it unto me; (158-60)

The biblical reference has been deliberately distorted - she neglects to say that the husband has equal rights over her body. Later in her prologue she presents two incompatible arguments side by side. First:

Thou sholdest seye, 'Wyf, go wher thee liste;
Taak youre disport, I wol nat leve no talis.
I knowe yow for a trewe wyf, dame Alis'. (318-20)

Then, a few lines later:

He is to greet a nigard that wolde werne
A man to lighte a candle at his lanterne;
He shal have never the lasse light, pardee. (333-5)

Having argued that her husband should trust her to be faithful, she now argues that her husband should not resent her having casual relations with other men.

If it were not for the good-humoured audacity with which she puts forward these arguments we would dismiss them, and her, as ridiculous. She has the persuasive art of a salesman, and even uses the imagery and diction of selling when talking about her 'wares' and about her attitude to and in marriage.

Winne whoso may, for al is for to selle (414)

Another rhetorical technique she uses is to put forward the husband's supposed arguments against her in order to demolish them on her own terms. The points she accuses the husband of making were standard complaints against women taken from a text on marriage by the Greek philosopher Theophrastus (370-285 BC), which was a frequently-used source of material for mediaeval satires on women.

She argues, for example:

Thou seist to me it is a greet meschief
To wedde a povre womman, for costage;
And if that she be riche, of heigh parage,
Thanne seistow that it is a tormentrie
To soffre hire pride and hire malencolie. (248-52)

She also accuses him of having said all this while drunk, thus making it impossible for the husband to deny it.

Thou comest hoom as dronken as a mous,
And prechest on thy bench, with ivel preef! (246-7)

Another device she uses is to involve the audience in the argument, with phrases such as:

Wher can ye seye . . . (59)
. . . I pray yow, telleth me. (61)
Telle me also . . . (115)
. . . say ye no? (123)

The implication of such phrases is that if no one can disagree, she must be right.

She also wins agreement by implicitly flattering those who agree. For example:

A wys womman wol bisie hire evere in oon (209)
Ye wise wives, that kan understonde. (225)
This knoweth every womman that is wys. (524)

These asides imply that any woman who agrees with her must be wise, and thus, implicitly, any who disagree must be foolish.

The Wife's rhetorical techniques achieve the desired results. The listeners cannot put forward immediate counter-arguments, and if we imagine her in the dramatic situation of speaking to the husband, then by the time he will have realised the fallacy of her argument and thought up a response she will have put forward half a dozen more arguments. She compensates for her lack of integrity with cunning and speed, getting her way by exasperating her opponent.

The Wife is far more than a comic caricature; she had depth, and her human sensitivity is revealed in a number of ways. If we were to think that she was unaware of her faults, and unable to examine and know herself, we would be far less impressed by her than is the case, but there is ample evidence to suggest that beneath her boisterous and bawdy exterior she is an intelligent responsible woman.

In a passage showing that she has self-knowledge, she confesses to her own deceitfulness, and claims that her manipulative methods are part of a gift from God which all women share.

For al swich wit is yeven us in oure birthe;
Deceite, weping, spinning God hath yive
To wommen kindly, whil that they may live. (400-2)

If it were not for her capacity for detachment her account would be humourless and self-condemning, but she knows what she is doing and takes responsibility for her actions. She knows that not everyone will look upon her attitudes and behaviour favourably:

But Crist, that of perfeccion is welle . . . (107)
. . .
Spak to hem that wolde live parfitly;
And lordinges, by youre leve, that am nat I. (112-3)

Finally, if we still feel any tendency to condemn her, we must remember that she makes it clear that, at the time of speaking, her chief aim is to entertain:

As taketh not agrief of that I seye;
For myn entente is not but for to pleye. (191-2)

Bibliography
Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale. Ed. James Winny. Cambridge University Press. 1965.

By: Ian Mackean

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Ian Mackean runs English Literature Resources & Essays, (where his site on Short Story Writing can also be found), and Books Made Into Movies.com. He is editor of 'The Essentials of Literature in English post-1914'. He is also a keen amateur photographer and has made a site of his photography at Photo-zen.com photography