Feb 11 The Wife of Bath Tale

In the Wife of Bath’s Tale, Chaucer tells a traditional story of a knight sent on a quest for a year and a day to find what women desire the most in the world. However, there are several segments in this tale that differ drastically from the literary norms of the time. What are they? How do these differences in traditional storytelling affect the story’s message?

9 thoughts on “Feb 11 The Wife of Bath Tale

  1. Well, the reason why the knight must go on this year long quest is very different from what one would typically expect of a knight at the time because he becomes overcome with lust and rapes a woman. This story is also different because, even though the main character of the knight is a male, most of the other characters are female (all of the women he must question, the woman he rapes, the queen, and the old woman). The fact that this story is being told by a woman also goes against the norms of the time period because women were not expected to voice their opinions and expectations, and they certainly weren’t supposed to be disloyal to their husbands. The challenge for the knight was to find out what women desire the most in life, and this is also uncharacteristic of the literary norms of the time because it wasn’t a general concern to know what women did or did not want, it was mostly up to their fathers or husbands to decide this because they were viewed as possessions and property. During this time, virginity and chastity was also praised and the wife of bath offsets this because she is very open about her sexual desires as well as the fact that she has been married five times (when it was thought at the time that women should either marry once or be a virgin for life.) This whole tale seems to contrast the literary norms of this time period, and I think it affects the story’s message because since it is so controversial, it is more likely to be heard (the more of an emotional response the reader or listener has to the story, the more memorable it is.) It makes a couple interpretations possible, for example one could say that the wife of bath is immoral for doing what she has done and telling this story because it isn’t normal for the time, or you could look at is inspirational because she is standing up for being different.

  2. In the tale a knight finds himself indebted to a woman. Instead of the traditional knight rescuing the damsel in distress, the knight finds himself in a position of desperation needing rescue from the woman. This role-reversal represents a significant theme in the story, and it reflects on the storyteller herself. In her prologue the wife comes across as a strong-willed, independent, and free woman. She does not need a man to rescue her. The idea of a woman standing up for herself and doing the rescuing of the knight is groundbreaking. The woman even sets the pace for the moral of the story as she states, “Thy gentillesse cometh fro God allone” (1163). Instead of the man setting the pace and establishing a precedence, the woman establishes herself as the moral authority.

    • I agree that the knight needing the help of the woman is a role-reversal that praises the independence and wisdom of a woman. I think this journey prepares the knight to defer to the old woman when faced with his choice between a beautiful unfaithful wife and an ugly faithful wife. He says, “I do no fors the wheither of the two, / For as yow liketh, it suffiseth me” (1234-1235). He asks her to choose which option is best. He has learned to treat women with more respect and value their opinions.

  3. While the story of the Wife of Bath’s tale features a knight going on a quest, he is not on a quest to prove his honor, but to redeem it if at all possible. The knight has sexually assaulted an innocent maiden, and for this, many people want him dead. His quest is one of life and death, as is common for Arthurian legend, but it is also non-traditional because the protagonist is a morally grey character. He also makes terrible comments about women, especially his wife. Even after she has saved his life, when she asks him to marry her, he exclaims “my dampmacioun! / Allas, that any of my nacioun / Sholde evere so foule disparaged be” (1067-1069). Even after they are married, he calls her old and ugly to her face and shows none of the traditional courtly romance traditions to her. These differences from a traditional romance story show the women as being reasonable, generous, and virtuous while men are depicted as despicable, rash, and aggressive. This presents the Wife of Bath’s narrative as being truly feministic and attempts to teach men the lesson that learning to respect women is in their best interests.

  4. The king giving his queen the power “to chese wheither she wolde hym save or spille” (314) starts this story off in a nontraditional way. Normally the woman are being rescued and the knight is trying to honor his king, but in the case, he finds himself at the mercy of the queen with the king sort of stepping out of the picture. Throughout the story, he is indebted to various women after taking advantage of one. The queen’s decision to send him on a nonviolent, more emotional quest makes this story bound to head in a much different direction than what a knight story at this time would normal follow.

  5. The ambiguity of how the reader is supposed to feel about the knight and the heinous actions that he commits are certainly aspects of The Wife of Bath’s Tale that differ from standard “knight stories” from this time. As is the fact that the majority of the characters in this story are female, and the fate of the knight is being held by the judgment of these women. One thing that’s especially interesting about the old woman whom the knight marries is that when I think of old women in medieval fiction, they’re usually evil or morally ambiguous witch-like characters. While the old woman in The Wife of Bath’s Tale clearly has magical powers, she never once uses them in a way other than good. If you really think about it she does more good than the knight, given that she’s the one who provides him with the answer that saves his life.

    One thing I will say though is that The Wife of Bath’s Tale does not break every mold of the traditional knight story. Even though the story does a lot of things differently, the rapist knight still gets everything he wants and lives happily ever after with no repercussions other than the fact that he could have been executed. That doesn’t mean he didn’t learn his lesson, but even Gawain walked away from his quest with a scar. I just think that for everything The Wife of Bath’s Tale does differently, there is still that happy ending that falls into the traditional storyline.

  6. As mentioned above, this tale mostly differs from the tradition Arthurian tales in that the knight is indebted to women, rather than women being indebted to him. But another notable difference is that this tale focuses on what happens after the knight “gets the girl.” In typical knight stories, the knight wins the love of a beautiful woman and the ride off into the sunset together to live happily ever after. However, in this tale, the knight does not even marry the woman because he wants to. He is forced to marry and resents his wife. She does not appear to be the traditional beautiful damsel, but instead is old and ugly. The second half of this story focuses on their marriage, which makes sense because the Wife of Bath has a great deal of experience with marriage. This differs from the typical knight tale that ends usually when the knight and the woman marry. The Wife of Bath’s tale takes a peek into married life and how husbands and wives make little deals with each other to compromise and stay happy in their marriage, as opposed to focusing on only the adventure beforehand.

  7. I think that while there are definitely many aspects that differentiate this tale from the typical “literary norms” of the time such as the role reversal between the dependent man and controlling woman, the story does not completely deviate from the style of the era. For example, “The Wife of Bath” is a classic example of the exempla genre. In an exemplum, a moral question is addressed and in the end good triumphs over evil. The knight’s sexual abuse of the woman is the moral dilemma and it is resolved through his quest. The quest, albeit unconventional in the sense that the knight had to “seketh every hous and every place…To learne what thyng wommen loven moost,” served as the resolution to the moral wrong (219-221). In the end, the knight’s decision to give the woman what she wanted prevailed as good over evil, allowing the characters to live happily. So although the plot was unconventional, the story still followed many of the conventions of the time.

  8. There are many aspects of this tale that differ from traditional story telling. The text features a a knight who is tasked with a quest in order to save his honor. Although differing from traditional tales, he has to take on this mission because he raped an innocent maiden and has to redeem his title as well as prove his honor. This narrative also differs because there is no quest for courtly love but has the knight searching for redemption due to his rapey nature. One aspect that is different is that the knight does not suffer or have any repercussions for his actions. In fact, the old woman turns into a younger and loyal wife which creates a happy ending that is of traditional style.

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