Chaucer’s delicate portrayal of the Wife of Bath as a wise woman, from my point of view, does not only lie with her sensible citations of the Bible, but also with her good and tactful use of humans’ ‘freewill’ provided by God. According to the Bible, “there is freedom [when] the Spirit of the Lord is present” (2 Corinthians 3.17) and as the “creation” of God, human beings “share the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8.21). The Wife of Bath, in my opinion, makes good use of the “freewill” to claim that she has received the “freedom” and “[blesses] [from] God [to] have wedded five” (line 44). Even though God hopes that people “[live] in parfit chastitee” (line 147), she defends her view of marriage by raising the idea that “the dart [that is] set up for virginitee” (line 81) is “[not] [set] [for] every wight” (line 83). Moreover, as “Crist [does] [not] [command] [that] every wight sholde go selle al that he [has] and yive it to the poore” (line 113 – 115), she finds the best ‘excuse’ not to give up her marriage and follows God’s way
As we can always refer to the affairs the Wife of Bath has with her five husbands as a reference, her argument about what a perfect marriage should be is the most powerful and convincing argument among all the others. In my opinion, although her first four marriages are full of repentance, the affairs do show us her most tactful means to deal with her husbands in order to achieve a happy and perfect marriage – the use of clever manipulation. From the Prologue, it is no doubt that the Wife of Bath “[has] the power [to] [manipulate] [men] during al [her] lif” (line 164) as she always knows the way to “use [her] instrument (her sexual favours) as freely as [she] [desires]” (line 155 – 156) to please her husbands “both eve and morwe” (line 158) so as to make them “paye [their] dette” (line 159). She is so confident with her “instrument” that she finds no reason why she “[needs] [to] do [any] lenger diligence to winne hir love or doon hem reverence” (line 211 – 212) so as to “[have] [them] [give] hir land and hir tresor” (line 210).
In addition, the Wife of Bath is keen in “[governing] [her] [husbands] after [her] lawe” (line 225) as she always makes them her slaves – in exchange for a ‘rare’ “faire” (line 227) chat, and in avoidance for a ‘usual’ “spitous chide” (line 229), her three husbands have to “bringe [her] gaye things fro the faire” (line 227) and are forced to work all night just to please her. In fact, the Wife of Bath is not only good at “governing” men, but also at “[speaking] and [accusing] men wrong” (line 232) as a means of gaining the upper hand in marriage, especially when things turn out to be not in her favour. For example, she becomes flattering and accuses her husbands for having an affair with the neighbour’s wife, when it is in fact herself who is unfaithful. As a result, when they are busy defending themselves, they will have no time to consider her affair. Actually, she uses similar ‘technique’ when she deals with her fourth husband – having known that he is being unfaithful to her, she tactfully hides her anger and jealousy, and “[makes] him of the same wode a croce” (line 490) by “[making] folk swich cheere” (line 492). Here the use of the “devious system” (Theodore Morrison: 5) turns the submissive and passive wife into “[the] purgatorye” (line 495) of her husband, who arouses his absolute “anger and jalousie” (line 494) and “twists” (line 500) him into his final fate – dies of anger.
Being a clever-manipulation practitioner, the Wife of Bath’s ‘formula’ of a perfect marriage works best when she is with her fifth husband. Her fifth husband, who is only twenty years old, is of remarkable contrast to the four preceding husbands – he is “so fresh and gay in [the] bed” (line 514), has “legges and feet so clene and faire” (line 604), and does well in “glosing [her]” (line 515). According to the Wife of Bath, he meets her requirements as he is sexually energetic and attractive. As a result, the man is capable of “[winning] [her] love anoon” (line 518), and the Wife of Bath herself feels strongly that “[she] [loves] him best” (line 519), even though “his love [is] of daungerous to [her]” (line 520). Chaucer, through the description of the Prologue, suggests that the Wife of Bath feels satisfied with her husband and she is married for love – she loves him so much that “[she] yaf al [her] herte unto his hold” (line 605), and even “yaf al the land and fee that evere [is] [her] yiven therbifore” (line 636 – 637). The husband, however, struggles to convert her to be a more ideal wife by reading the book “Valerius” (about wicked women), which is to me, a means to practice manipulation. Here we expect to see the husband gaining the absolute control over the Wife of Bath, who is then timid and submit to her beloved. Nevertheless, when things turn out that the Wife of Bath cannot withstand the ‘torments’ anymore, and dares to ‘fight back’ to hit her husband and tear three pages out of the book, we know that she has ‘got used’ to be under control, and is ready for a ‘rebellion’. Her pretending to be dead afterwards, which makes him “agast” (line 804) and nearly “[flees] away” (line 804), brings forth to her most tactful device that enables her to ‘regain’ her control over her husband, as he feels so grateful about her ‘survival’ that he abandons his manipulation, and submits to his wife willingly – he lets her be the owner of his estate and most importantly, he does not hit her anymore, and even burn the book, which used to be his powerful means of manipulation, to show his complete obedience to her. The Wife of Bath is now his “trewe wif [who] [can] do as [she] lust the terme of al [their] lif” (line 825 – 826). However, even though the Wife of Bath gains the upper hand over his husband at last, she is kind to him and does not attempt to mistreat him. Both of them are faithful to one another and live a happy life onwards. The ‘happy ending’ of their affairs, is thus, in my view, the most successful example of an effective practice of the ‘formula’ for a perfect and happy marriage.
There are critiques that state that The Wife of Bath tale is not suitable for the Prologue, especially to its teller, the Wife of Bath. Some people, in addition, suggest that “Chaucer may have originally written the fabliau that became The Shipman’s Tale for the Wife of Bath, [which] develops [the] [Tale] [to] [a] [state] even beyond [to] the complexity already revealed in her Prologue” (The Norton Anthology English Literature Volume 1: 272). Nevertheless, in my opinion, the Tale is necessary as to be in support of the Prologue, especially in points which helps expressing the Wife of Bath’s views of people’s attitudes towards the qualities of women, and the effectiveness of her ‘formula’ of a perfect marriage.
In the Tale, when the Old Wife argues about how her ugly outlook and age, which is the main “[causes] of unreste” (line 1110) of the knight, are related to her loyalty to him, she suggests the idea that ugliness and age, unlike youth and beauty, are “grete wardeins upon chastitee” (line 1222) – although she is old and ugly, she will always be “[his] trewe humble wif” (line 1227), and will “nevere displese [him] in al [his] lif” (line 1228). A young and fair woman, however, can fail her husband by “[taking] [her] aventure of the repair in some other place” (line 1230 and 1232). The Old Wife’s argument is similar to the view of the Wife of Bath in that they both agree that youth is one of the main factors for a woman to find her husband or lover – the Wife of Bath, in the Prologue, claims that her youth – the “flour of al [her] age”, which “[tackles] [her] aboute [her] herte roote” (line 477), “[does] [her] herte boote” (line 478) “in th’actes and in fruit of mariage” (line 120). Beauty, according to the three husbands of the Wife of Bath, can be an obstacle to a loyal marital relationship, and a diminishing factor of the love between the couples – “every holour [will] have hire if [the] [woman] [is] fair (line 259 – 260), and she will have no more chastity as she “is assailed upon eech a side” (line 261). In fact, we can see coherence in the Prologue and the Tale from the similar views shared by both the Wife of Bath and her husband (the Prologue), and the Old Wife (the Tale) – the coherence is essential here as to strengthen the convincing power of Chaucer’s description of age and outlook as an important feature of a woman, with special attention to the chaste quality of old age and ugliness, and in some sense, the corrupting quality of youth and fairness.
Besides the argument about age and outlook, we can find other examples of similar views between the Prologue and the Tale that helps to bring them into a coherent whole. Take nobility as an example – From the Old Wife’s view, people with noble names – possesses wealth and blood which “claime [them] to [be] of heigh parage” (line 1126) are not of true nobility unless they “do no vilainye or vice” (line 1144). Here her argument is that people is not worth claiming true nobility just because of their wealth and noble birth, as they can also lead a shameful life like their elders. In her opinion, true nobility belongs to those who live a “virtuous living” (line 1128) and they are worth to be the “gretteste gentilman” (line 1122). In fact, although there is not any direct mention of the quality of nobility in the Prologue, we know, from the comment of the Wife’s three husbands, that even a rich woman of “heigh parage” (line 256) can be a “tormentrye” (line 257) to her husband as he has to “suffer hir pride and hir malencolye” (line 258). The use of the quality of nobility in both the Prologue and the Tale, in my view, emphasizes that even people of “heigh parage” (appear in both the Prologue and the Tale), regardless of the place and the time they belong to (there is no evidence that shows that the Prologue and the Tale are based on the same time phase in the history), are not necessarily worth claiming true nobility unless they live virtuously – it adds information to Chaucer’s definition of nobility.
One of the most distinctive examples of the similarity between the Prologue and the Tale is the “sovereinetee” (line 1044) that both the Wife of Bath and the Old Wife use to “wel over [their] [husbands] as [their] love” (line 1045). From The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, we know clearly that they are similar in that they both have wit, keen in argument and are energetic and eager for sexual affairs. In the Prologue, as mentioned above, the fifth husband of the Wife of Bath finally submits to her devious, clever-manipulation device and yields the sovereignty of their marriage as well as the control over his possession up to her. We can find similar plot in the Tale – even though the Old Wife saves his life, the knight feels awkward to keep his promise to “take [her] upto [his] wif” (line 1061) because she is old and ugly. Fully aware of “the cause of [his] unreste”, the Old Wife, based on her life experiences (what she learns from her society), raises her wise argument about how her ugliness, poverty, low birth and old age are to the benefit to their happy marriage, which finally, convinces the knight to tender his love towards her.
Despite the different settings of both stories, they share a similar ending – both husbands willingly “putte [their] [life] in [their] [wives’] wise governaunce” (line 1237) and “holde it best” (line 1244) that their wives take the sovereignty in their marriage. The similar ending, to me, is the ‘fruit’ of their hard work – they gain the ‘victory’ of their ‘battle of marriage’ with their patience and the use of convincing, tactful devices. As mentioned above, the Wife of Bath is satisfied with “[her] power [to] [manipulate] [men] during al [her] lif” (line 164), and her ‘formula’ of a perfect marriage works effectively with her five husbands. Therefore, Chaucer’s use of the tale is without doubt a strong support of the Wife of Bath’s arguments, as he has presented here a ‘real-life’ example of the effective practice of the ‘formula’. The existence of both stories is, to me, the best example of the integration of the Prologue and the Tale – they are so well integrated that their existence is of mutual benefit to each other – with the story of the Old Wife, we are convinced that though the Wife of Bath’s arguments about marriage are in some sense, subjective, she really has the “experiences” in marriage that enable her to design her ‘strategies’ to cope with different husbands of different characteristics. In addition, as we benefit from our preceding reading of the Prologue, we understand the arguments of the Old Wife better, and find the ending of the Tale more acceptable.
Chaucer suggests in The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale that when women get everything, including the sovereignty over the marriage, they will be kind to their husbands as they will not abuse their authority and mistreat their husbands. However, in the real life, women are usually morally and physically inferior to men, and thus, the Wife of Bath’s ‘formula’ of a perfect marriage is only good for her case. Despite the truth, we benefit from Chaucer’s tactful use of the tale as a support of the arguments written in the Prologue. In conclusion, the Prologue and the Tale are well-integrated that they express ideas coherently, which makes their existence a lot more valuable.
Bibliography
Abrams, MH. (2000) in Greenblatt, Stephen The Norton Anthology English Literature Seventh Edition Volume 1 UK: W.W Norton & Company pp 156-210
Morrison, Theodore Prologue to the Wife of Bath’s Tale Rendered into Modern English
Editor Unknown (1984) Good News New Testament Today’s Chinese / English Versions Hong Kong: Baptist Press pp 454, 487 – 488 and 521
