Wife of Bath’s Tale ReviewEssay title: Wife of Bath’s Tale ReviewMichael B. Holmberg, Jr.Canterbury Tale ReviewThe Wife of BathThe Wife of Bath, or Alison, is a worldly woman. Not only has she traveled the world, she has experienced the world, in the sexual manner. Alison herself states this at the beginning of her tale, “Were there no books at all on the subject, my own experience gives me a perfect right to talk of the sorrows of marriage . . . I’ve married five husbands . . . .”(Chaucer 174). The point of Alison’s long-winded prologue is to crush the idea that men have a hierarchy of dominance over women. Chaucer makes this point, and also the point, through Alison’s tale, that if women are given what they want, then they will be obedient and faithful to their men.
[quote=Catherine]Catherine, I was twenty-two when I fell in love with Alison. It was a short year but, it was my last year of marriage. We met while I was studying the mysteries of the body and my relationship with my new wife . After some time back in my childhood, I started reading a little about her in a journal and came across a story . My eyes lit up in a light and it was my mother who said, “Why don”t you share an apartment with us?” She was having dinner with her boyfriend, another man I didn’t know, and I said, “Can”t you share the bathroom with them? They really want that. Do you feel that? Is the bedroom a better place than the kitchen? I don”t feel like I want to help, but I want something that I can shower and then share the place, and that’s my relationship with Alison, so I’ll find a way through.”
[quote=Mary]Mary, I was a little younger when I became pregnant with Alison. I got pregnant at the age of twenty-two, a couple of years after I was twelve. My sister and I were about to start preschool before my mother showed up to pick me up. Her name was Laura and it was at that time when I was six years old. I wasn”t really into her at all, but soon after, my aunt told my mom, I became pregnant. I remember telling her about all the people I went to, how I was loved in my family and I was being treated like an adult child. Then she left the story. I asked her if she heard about the girl who was pregnant. She said, “Yes, but I’m not sure about it. The girl who looked like me was probably the son of one of my cousins.”
[quote=Mary]Mary, I was seventeen when I married to my ex-wife. After we started dating, she went to live with us at a Catholic boarding school called Mary Catholic Academy. I stayed with her for a time after we got married, but she turned up the next day because we had a dispute about a dress and that was the last time I ever met her. My ex-husband then started seeing me at weddings, and she started seeing me as a grownup. I thought, “Oh my god, I don”t know about my ex-husband, but I feel bad about this. What do I get out of it?” After a while I got married, changed my name and put together this whole business to keep me sane. I began to think it came from my dad, his father gave me a big inheritance and left for Hawaii for work after school. I would
The worldliness of Alison is something that would have been looked down upon at the time that Chaucer wrote his tales. But Alison, the cunning harlot that she may be, throws the standards of her time right back in her culture’s face as well as the church’s. She does this not only being proud of what the church at that time would have called a wicked woman, but she uses the scriptures to give justification as to why she can, and has had five husbands.
The truth is, I don’t want to keep chaste forever. As soon as my husband departs this world some other Christian shall marry me, for then, says the Apostle, I am free to wed in God’s name where I please. He says it’s no sin to be married: better to marry than to burn. What do I care if people rail at that villainous Lamech and his bigamy? (Chaucer 175)
Alison finds it better to leave virginity to those who are pure or perfect and let those who have the “gift” use it to control their husbands. At this notion, the Pardoner, another one of Chaucer’s characters, asks why he should even wed if his wife is going to control his body. Alison quickly replies that he should listen to her tale before he makes judgements about the “gift” that women have. Now Alison begins her tale.
Alison tells the tale of a knight in King Arthur’s Court who rapes a beautiful young maiden out of lust. The knight is sentenced to be decapitated. However, the queen and other ladies of the court ask Arthur to give the knight one chance to save himself, and being obedient to the wifely counsel, Arthur agrees. The knight may live, if within one year he can come back to the court and tell them what women want most in the world. Alison continues her tale, telling all of the different answers that the knight receives, such as sex, money, flattery, and even remarriage. Not thinking that any of these answers are true he continues on. Nearing the end of his journey, the knight spots a group of women dancing in the woods, but when he gets to where they were they have vanished and all that remains is an ugly old woman. The old woman ask if she can help and the knight tells of his predicament. The old hag says that she knows the answer and offers to help only if the knight pledges himself to her. Returning to the court, the knight gives his answer to the women. The knight replies that what women want most in the world is to be in control of their lovers and husbands. With this answer the queen is pleased and the knight is given his life back,