In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale, readers witness two possible poles between which the subject of the narrative wavers: a feminist who does not miss a beat when talking about female sovereignty in marriage and an anti-feminist who goes back and discredits the female gender. For example, on one hand, she notes that women are not only steadfast but also focused on their goals yet on the other, she says that a woman is incapable of keeping secrets even when they involve her husband (Chaucer, II.951-956). Still, as Walter Long explains in The Wife as Moral Revolutionary, one ought to consider the society in which the Wife lived when analyzing her character.
Long commences his analysis of Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale by pointing out that four disparities emerge when critics regard her traits. First, some assert that the Wife is a “stock figure” who lacks individuality since Chaucer manipulates her actions and words while disregarding the true principles that existed at the time (Long 274). In other words, the author appears to overlook the patriarchal societies in which the travelers lived and in turn, portrays the Wife of Bath as a rebel or an ignorant woman. Second, and as an extension of the first point, if the Wife is indeed a stock figure, then all her arguments and apparent inconsistencies are a mere projection of Chaucerian irony (Long 274). Consequently, the third and forth arguments hold that if the wife can only conform to dramatic irony, then her arguments support female sovereignty in marriage and is immoral by the standards of her audience (Long 274-275).
Contrastingly, a fifth point affirms that while the sexual aggressiveness of the Wife appears as a mere gratification of female desire, such views have flaws because she not only defies the men but the authority that gave them dominance (Long 277). After all, Chaucer’s Wife of Bath must be aware of the fact that no matter how much she argues or the number or valid points she gives, her “masculine behavior” and “egalitarian ideas” will never gain acceptance before her traditional audience (Long 281). To that end, if the aim of the Prologue and Tale is equalitarianism, then the next goal of the wife’s oratory is to restore balance in an otherwise hierarchical social order. By extension, if readers understand that Chaucer’s use of irony in The Wife of Bath’s Tale is out of necessity, where the subject maintains a “serious position,” the seemingly dissimilar views can merge (Long 282). In other words, the view of the Wife of Bath as an equalitarian moral revolutionary or activist accomplishes a unification of the text, which would otherwise be impossible to achieve within the framework of conservative and critical traditions.
Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Canterbury Tales." The Norton Anthology of Western Literature. Ed. Sarah Lawall, Lee Patterson, Patricia Meyer Spacks, William G. Thalmann and Heather James. Trans. Theodore Morrison. 8th. Vol. I. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2014. 1701-1769. Print.
Long, Walter C. "The Wife as Moral Revolutionary." The Chaucer Review 20.4 (1986): 273-284. Web. <http://www.jstor.org>.
