It is in the prologue we learn about the Wife of Bath herself, headstrong and opinionated; she has married five times since she was twelve. However she has no regrets about her ways and insists that ‘God bad us for to wexe and multiplye’, citing examples of great Old Testament figures, like Abraham, Jacob, and Solomon, as having numerous wives at one time. She makes a valid point that not everyone can follow the church’s instructions to remain a virgin or else the human race would not procreate,
And certes, if ther were no seed ysowe,
Virginitee, thanne wherof sholde it growe?
She makes no excuses for her untraditional ways and believes that women should use their ‘gifts’ as best as they can, hers being her sexual prowess. With this she controls and dominates her husbands, Chaucer perhaps indicating that this is women’s best weapon in their battle to overpower their husbands.
This view is further enhanced with a contrasting example in the Knight’s tale, where Emelye, a typical passive and submissive female character, despairs when she hears she must marry, wishing to comply with the church and keep her sexuality.
Yet despite the Wife of Bath waging a fight against the continual struggle against the discrimination of women and the taboos against female sexuality, it is questionable as to what light Chaucer portrays her in. He seems to void her opinion because of her social class and looks, when her methods are actually shrewd and astute. Yet her intelligence is overshadowed by the fact that she has had five husbands and considered something of a whore, emphasised when she speaks of her reasons for coming on the pilgrimage, simply to find another suitor; ‘Welcome the sixth whenever come he shall.’
Yet whatever Chaucer may feel about these women, he certainly acknowledges their potential authority, (the queen intervenes to stop Palamon and Arcite getting killed, and the queen in the Wife of Bath tale also intervenes to prevent certain death for the knight convicted of rape) depicting examples of female dominance and superiority in both tales.
