The Wife of Bath’s Tale

PROLOGUE

The wife of Bath has traveled the world making pilgrimages (she has been to Jerusalem, Boulogne-sur-Mer, Rome, Santiago de Compostela and Cologne in France), and the pilgrimage to Canterbury is much lighter for her than previous travels. The woman also brought five different husbands to church and had many other lovers in her youth. She is presented as a well-groomed worldly woman. She is a middle class seamstress in fact her dress is made of finely woven kerchiefs and she also wears red hoses and a new pair of shoes.

 The lady was a little deaf but beautiful for the canons of the time: she had red in hue cheeks, gapped teeth and large hips (these were all canons that defined the type of sexy woman of the time). The wife of Bath was a vital and enterprising woman with a presumptuous and self-centered character, her clothes were extravagant and she liked to get noticed. She had very strange principles for the time she lived, in fact the other women usually had to stay under the power of their men.

During the pilgrimage, the woman tells her story explaining that she was married five times and that she say that she used the gifts that God has given her and he didn’t give her the gift of celibacy. The woman says that she is used to holding power over her husbands and that she had three good husbands who were rich, old and easily controlled while the two bad ones were wild, unfaithful and full of conflict. Her travel partner totally disagrees with her after her statements so she begins telling a tale.

THE WIFE OF BATH’S TALE

There was a knight in King Arthur’s time who riding home one day from hawking, raped a fair young maiden. King Arthur issued a decree that said that the knight must be brought to justice. When the knight was captured, he was condemned to death, but Queen Guinevere intervened and begged her husband to spare the knight. The Queen told the knight that she would grant his life if he could  discover for her what it was that women most desire, and conceded him a year and a day in which he could roam wherever he pleases and return with an answer.

Everywhere the knight went he explained his predicament to the women he met and asked their opinion, but all the answers he received were different from each other. The answers ranged from fame and riches to play, or clothes, or sexual pleasure, or flattery, or freedom, or jollity.  The knight was despondent that he could not find an answer. When he reached the end of the twelve months before he must return to meet his fate, he still lacks the answer he so desperately needs.

Outside a castle in the woods, he saw some maidens dancing and singing, but when he approached they disappeared as if by magic, and all that was left was an old woman. The Knight explained the problem to the old woman, who was very wise and may know the answer. She forced him to promise to grant any favour she might ask of him in return. The Knight agrees beacause he hadn’t any options left, so the old lady assured him that she would have given him the right answer. At the court, he gave his answer, which had been recommended to him by the old woman. He said that women desire to have the sovereignty and to rule over their husbands. All the women of the court agree therefore the knight is left free. Then the old lady asked the knight to marry her and although aghast, he realized he has no other choice and eventually agreed.

On their wedding night the old woman was upset that she was repulsed by him in bed because of her looks and because she was born poor. She teased his snobbery saying that he was not a gentleman and defended her poverty as irrelevant to God. She gave him a choice: she could be an old and ugly wife , but humble and devoted, or a young and fair wife but who may not be faithful. The Knight responded by saying that the choice was hers. The old lady knowing that she had the ultimate power, since he had given her full control, promised him both beauty and fidelity. The Knight turned to look at the old woman again, but he found a young and lovely woman. The old woman said “What women want most is…” and the answer was the same she gave him at the court: sovereignty.