Wife Of Bath Tale Analysis

Some time later after several character stories, it is the Wife of Bath’s turn to tell her tale. Before she begins, she gives a very lengthy Prologue. She begins by stating how she considers herself an authority on marriage due to her extensive experience of five marriages since she was first wedded at twelve (TCT, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue lines ). She states she 's received criticism for it due to people citing the Biblical story of the Wedding at Cana, which is the only such event Christ attended. The Wife of Bath digresses, however, utilizing her own interpretation of the Bible based on God’s quote from Genesis “be fruitful and multiply” and the fact many important Bible figures like Solomon, Abraham and Jacob had multiple wives as justification …show more content…
It’s text provide insight to various strong themes that are presented in both the prologue and the story itself. Throughout her prologue, the Wife of Bath attempts to defend her multiple marriages by drawing support from the Bible. However, many of the quotes she uses to support her argument are done so carelessly. She interprets the phrase attributed to God from Genesis, “be fruitful and multiply” as an expressed command to just have many children, when really, the phrase has a far larger connotation of God wanting us to fill and have dominion over the Earth and that there are other types of children one can multiply such as the spiritual “children” of Jesus and his apostles. Her blatant misuse of religious text, for her own gain no less, is Chaucer’s way of subtly mocking the clergy in both The Canterbury Tales and the real world, who have been known to abuse and misuse the text in the Bible to justify their own wrongful acts. In addition to attacking Church corruption, Chaucer also seems to critique the staunch antifeminism of the time simply through the Wife of Bath’s character. Her character portrayal is the perfect example of what many works of the time comically-portrayed woman as unfaithful and superficial, with a constant need to undermine the authority of their husbands. The Wife of Bath, nonetheless, shows pride for what she does and her domination over her husbands, displaying feminist undertones. At the same time, however, by conforming to antifeminist stereotypes, the Wife of Bath affirms what men used to justify support for a patriarchal society. Regarding The Wife of Bath’s Tale, it seems to be more sympathetic to women than the conflicting themes of the prologue. Society in the story seems to be matriarchal or at least more favorable to women as King Author allows his wife, the Queen, to override his judgment of the