How did the marriages differentiate for the Wife of Bath’s fifth marriage compared to the first four? If she learned anything. What was the lesson?
ENGL 201 | British Literature to 1800
Prof. Myra Seaman | Spring 2016
How did the marriages differentiate for the Wife of Bath’s fifth marriage compared to the first four? If she learned anything. What was the lesson?
The Wife of Bath’s fifth marriage is different because she seems to actually care for him. She says, “My fifthe housbonde, God his soule blesse, / Which that I took for love and no richesse” (p. 308, 525-526). She married him out of love rather than for his money like with the others. She seems to have learned a lesson in tricking these men because her fifth husband has more control over her. The text reads, “He nolde suffre nothyng of my list,” which the footnote tells us means “He would not allow anything I desired” (p.310, 633). She finally met someone who can control her. Despite this apparent progress, before she tells everyone about her ex-husbands, she mentions that she would like a sixth. Chaucer writes, “Yblessed be God that I have wedded five! / Welcome the sixte, whenevere he shal” (p.300, 44-45). Even though she met her match, she is willing to take advantage of another husband again.
The Wife of Bath was not vulnerable when she married the first four husbands. She was in control of the older, rich men (the “good” husbands) who were devoted to her. She was not devoted to them back, and didn’t value their love for her (lines 207-208). They gave the Wife of Bath land and in return, she could manipulate them using her sex appeal (lines 211-214).
The fifth husband was not so easily manipulated. He was the one in control in the marriage. The Wife of Bath (and thus, Chaucer) clearly states between lines 513-525 that because of the husband played “hard to get”, holding his love back and then giving it to her in a manipulative manner, the wife loved him best. She even stated that he was the cruelest to her (line 505). Yet, because he played the same game that she played on her other four husbands (in a more physical, brutal way), she loved husband # 5 the most. This was the lesson she, and the reader, learned from her experience.
The Wife of Bath’s fifth marriage was based on love rather than on money or achieving a higher status. She was so taken with him that she fell in love with him while her fourth husband was still alive. She says that the first husbands were “goode and rich and olde” (197). She views her control over them and their submissiveness as the mark of a good husband, stating that “I hadde hem hoolly in myn hond” (211). However, the fifth husband beats her and is the one who attempts to control her. He accuses her, and all wives, of being vindictive and cruel. I don’t think that her husbands have taught her anything, because she is still looking for a sixth husband and speaks proudly of her sexuality. If she has learned anything from her fifth husband, it is a reaffirmation of the fact that she gets more pleasure when she finds a feeble husband who she can control.
The wife of Bath’s fifth marriage was different compared to her first because, she actually loved this husband. she did not choose him based on money which was a first. The fifth husband would beat her, but he for some reason had a weird power over her and always be loving and satisfying to her in bed and win her back. Normally the Wife of Bath would have control in the relationships but with her fifth one roles were a little reversed. Also all he other husbands were older. Junky was very young, I believe in his 20’s. I do not believe that she learned anything. She always tried to get her way and really only looked out for her best interest.
As some people have stated above, it is apparent that the biggest difference in this fifth marriage is that the Wife of Bath pursues it for love and not money. Although, she points out that this marriage was also the most unstable at the beginning considering how he condemned her womanhood, comparing it to those before her who betrayed/murdered their husbands, and beat her. I think the biggest thing she learns from this last marriage is that compromise is really important in a relationship. She couldn’t get away with tricking and manipulating her fifth husband to get what she wanted like she did all the others. Instead, he dished back the treatment she dealt out to him. She learns after their huge (physical) fight that if she wants to make it out alive, she needs to both take and give as well. Another important thing to mention is that she manages to preserve her independence and her courageous side throughout this experience. She says at one point “who peynted the leoun, tel me who?,” showing that perhaps if her story had been told by anyone but her, one may assume that she was put in her place by her husband. However, since we get the story from her side, we can see that she preserves these qualities despite the lesson she learns.
The biggest difference is that he takes on the role that she carried in her prior marriages. For example, he is the one that wooed her and now controls her and the marriage. She no longer has sexual power or authority over him as she did with the other marriages in which the men’s submission granted her more money, which in turn ignited more pride in her. The fifth husband also takes away her sexual grip and control so she becomes the victim in a way. Most of all, she loves him rather than being with him for financial gain, even if he is abusive. Yet in the end she turns it around and gains “the governance of hous and lond, and of his tonge and his hond also” (814-815).