Why is it that the Wife of Bath cares more for the husbands who treated her worse, rather than those who gave her everything she asked for? She was intrigued by her fourth husband because he doesn’t seem to pay her any mind. He made her jealous by indulging in the same pleasures that she described as perfectly normal. He had a mistress and played many of the same manipulative games that his wife also played, which seemed to frustrate her – “I told you how it filled my heart with spite/To see another woman his delight” and also, “I think I loved him best, I’ll tell no lie/He was disdainful in his love, that’s why.” Her fifth husband read to her from books which degraded the idea of feminism. In retaliation, the Wife of Bath destroyed his book. She then received a swift blow to her head from her dear husband in a fit of anger. Yet, based on the rest of her Prologue, she seems to have loved this man.
So help me God I was as kind to him
As any wife from Denmark to the rim
Of India, and as true. And he to me.
And I pray God that sits in majesty
To bless his soul and fill it with his glory.
She still praises him and speaks of the abuse inflicted on her very matter-of-factly. As difficult as it may be to swallow, could it be that she is an example of a woman who merely wants the illusion of having control while she is really the one who is controlled?
It is not to say that women don’t want power. We just don’t want all of the power. After taking another one of his beatings, she made her fifth husband feel so guilty that he relinquished all of his assets. Therefore, there was a cessation of power which perhaps implies to the reader that her husband may now be less desirable to her, since she has now defeated and conquered him. After this encounter, we do not hear much more of the fifth husband. Why is that? Is it because there’s nothing left to tell now that she controls him? We aren’t even told how this marriage ends – whether he died or they separated.
Of tongue and fist, indeed of all he’d got.
I made him burn that book upon the spot.
And when I’d mastered him, and out of deadlock.
Secured myself the sovereignty of wedlock.
For ages, women have begged men to be more eager to listen and indulge us in our thoughts and desires. However, we tend to become bored with these men. Though the two latter marriages don’t seem “successful”, the reader can see the transition between husbands – from ones that were simple and easily tames to the ones that were more difficult and harder to control. She is finding it harder to find a husband, now that she feels weakened, by what she considers the natural flaw of aging – “I won’t prevent him! I’ll have a husband yet.” So now she needs to assert herself, using some other way to demonstrate her power. She doesn’t really have the things that she describes as important, except for what she has superficially attainted through past marriages.
You say that some desire us for our wealth,
Some for our shapeliness, our looks, our health,
Some for our singing, others for our dancing,
Some for our gentleness and dalliant glancing,
And some because our hands are soft and small;
But your account the devil gets us all.
Though in her tale she brings out her point that women want dominance over a man in marriage, there are flaws to her story telling. The nominal hero in the tale is a rapist. The word rape is often promoted by the Wife of Bath throughout her tale. The king in the Wife's tale represents authority and would have inflicted the punishment of death on the knight. The queen on the other hand would have preferred the knight to also be raped, ‘an eye for an eye.’ Out of context, it can be seen that the Wife of Bath is the rapist knight herself. Since the story is her own, her traits can be seen through the different characters. The Wife of Bath is interchangeable. She can be the knight who conquers the woman and who is also blinded by the false importance of age and beauty. Having created the knight and the theme of rape, she becomes a perpetual self-rapist. She could be the woman who is overtaken by the knight’s sexuality and strength, a sign of her sexual weakness. She could be the queen who is set upon this man learning that woman want/need control. Or even more so, we can see her as the hag who conquers the man and wins the power in the relationship. There is a gentle irony in the Wife's tale. Her story is of the antifeminist cliché that all women in their hearts desire to have control but also subconsciously want to be “raped”.
The knight hardly seems worthy of the old woman, even in her haggard form. He chooses to have her beautiful and independent rather than unattractive and faithful. However, the man still gets what he wants. Though it seems as though the knight is the foolish one, it is his wife that can be seen as the loser. The reader can assume that they live happily ever after now that the knight has his beautiful wife and the old lady now has her independence. It is also assumed that their sexual relations are now better because of these circumstances. This may indicate that the wife was sexually obedient once she received the sovereignty she wanted. Still, the female is giving up something to the man. Though the Wife of Bath claims that no one’s sexual nature should be denied, there is never any real evidence that she enjoys the act of intercourse. She merely sees it as yet another way to intimate that she has perhaps found strength in what is actually the weakest part of her being – her body’s sexuality.
The Wife of Bath longs to have one of the things that every woman wants in a relationship: power. But is it really power over men that she wants? Or is she content in her ignorance that living a life of excesses will bring her happiness? Because of this desire for power she becomes jealous of the hag in her story, whom she identifies with. She is demonstrating that even though she is as ugly as the hag is, she can have that same power. Though she may not be beautiful, she has the illusion of beauty, through the ownership of power. She has the money and people are intimidated by her, yet she is not happy with what she has achieved. In fact, we find her to be one of the saddest characters, so numbed by the overuse of her own sexuality, that she really can’t enjoy it. She feels incomplete without a man, therefore contradicting her idea that she has the upper-hand in the relationship. She realizes her age and beauty are slowly fading, and she feels weaker because of it. This false sense of security that she has shown in her intimidating nature is merely her demonstrating how weak and scared she truly is.
We women hide our faults but let them show
Once we are safely married, so you say.
There’s a fine proverb for a popinjay.
So can we say that women want control? Yes, this may very well be the case. However, why do we want it? It’s not so that we can be happy or to achieve that feeling of self-fulfillment through domination of a man. Throughout history, the only thing that women have had complete control over has been their bodies. We try to justify sexual dominance as retribution. However, in doing so, we really create a contradictory, antifeminist statement. The bodies that we attempt to protect become the bodies we use against ourselves in order to gain a false sense of stability, which we feel we need. A sexual revolution is supposed to remind us of how our sexuality is a huge, priceless part of us. However, we revolt against ourselves by overusing our sexuality, diminishing its value. The Wife of Bath is really not comfortable in her own skin. She needs to constantly defend her actions with arguments that excuse her behavior.
Had God commanded maidenhood to all
Marriage would be condemned beyond recall,
And certainly if seed were never sown,
How ever could virginity be grown?
And also here,
Tell me to what conclusion or in aid
Of what were generative organs made?
And for what profit were those creatures wrought?
Trust me, they cannot have been made for naught.
Especially as she gets older, she finds herself to be weaker. The men she chooses really choose her and instead of using her looks to get her control, she has to assert herself through guilt and foolery. Her explanations prove that she feels the need to constantly defend her actions, which may hint that she’s not particularly comfortable with them herself. Imagine the hours she has spent reading the Bible, arguing with others, and attempting to defend her ideas. If her theories were so obvious and true, why is she feeling the need to defend something that shouldn’t need explaining? The reader begins to wonder if it is that same sexuality and control the Wife of Bath has convinced herself she needs, which causes her to be a lonely and unfulfilled woman.
