I really liked today's discussion on
"The Wife of Bath Prologue". It was interesting to see how the
majority of the class seemed to agree when it came to liking the story.
Everyone seemed to have their distinct views on the wife and how she lived her
life. One thing that I liked in particular was Jordan’s point about as a woman;
the wife shouldn't feel the need to use her sexuality to get what she wants.
There are other ways to achieve this. When I read the prologue I was thinking
the same thing, it appears that throughout The
Canterbury Tales, the woman will use their bodies in ways that today we would
see as characteristics of a whore. In some way and maybe this is just me, but
the Wife of Bath slightly reminds me of a Mafia boss. Similar to a Mafia boss,
the wife knows her way with words so as to make people think what she has to
say is correct. Which can be seen when she and her fourth husband, Jankin,
settle on the agreement that she may do what she like with her money and land
so long as she doesn't forget about him. Like we said in class, she knows how
to play the game and by doing so she has benefited herself. Aside from her
multiple marriages, she has possessions of money and land as well as being a
skilled cloth maker. Perhaps this is Chaucer’s way of showing us that we don’t
give medieval women enough credit. I
actually like the story much more than I thought I would, I guess Middle
English and I get along better than I thought.
This is very interesting. I never saw the Wife of Bath as a mafia boss, but I can see the correaltion based on your post. Her character is very good at manipulating people, which is basically all mafia bosses do. She knows exactly what she is doing it and she does it well. I also agree that Chaucer's depiction of her puts women in a different light most medieval texts do. In Beowulf, the women's names were not even put on the family tree. Here, Chaucer makes her this powerful woman who has her own job, owns land (albeit from her previous husbands) and knows how to handle herself in a relationship in order to get what she wants. I love her character.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of the Wife of Bath's strategies, I too feel strongly that a wife shouldn't feel the need to use her sexual wiles to get her own way. I think it is important, but really difficult for us to solidify in our minds the lack of autonomy a woman in all actuality had at that time. Our sex was powerless back then. Just as Dr. Mitchell-Buck pointed out, husbands were allowed to beat their wives and a woman of wealth had to release everything to her spouse upon marriage. So as much as I dislike the character of the wife in this tale, I can understand how she may have felt as though she had no choice but to act as she did. Admittedly, her schemes are clever and for a woman of her time, what else did she really have to hold over a man's head but something his sex so intrinsically greatly desires?
ReplyDeleteI like your idea that the Wife of Bath is a mafia boss, or the wife of a mafia boss. While reading her prologue I actually started relating and imagining her as Marilyn Monroe. She was a woman who has ties to a lot of strong powerful men. She knew how to work the system (to a point I guess). She did have ties to the mafia. She was a woman who knew how to use her sexuality to her advantage, just like the Wife of Bath.
ReplyDeleteThe idea of the wife being a mafia boss is great! It's kind of true in that she has exactly the right weapons to get what she wants, and she is brutal about going after it
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