The Wife Of Bath In Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales “The wife of Bath” is one of the most captivating stories. This is primarily because the main character Wife of Bath or otherwise known as Alisoun is the complete opposite of how someone with a medieval mindset would think the role of a woman should be. In medieval times, women were viewed as being submissive to their husbands and kept most of their thoughts and ideas to themselves. The wife of bath defies the medieval mindset of who a woman should be by being very promiscuous and controlling her multiple husbands in an unorthodox way. Even though her persona is perceived as being confident and self-absorbed, Alisoun may have more depth than what is shown on the surface of the story. Her choice in husbands,
the way she socially presents herself, and her physical appearance all relate back to her own insecurities and the need to feel as if she is in control in a medieval patriarchal world. The wife of bath is an open book when talking about her marriages. She believes she is highly qualified to discuss marriage because she has been married five times and knows how to manipulate each husband into giving her what she desires most. Her objective for each marriage is to control each husband and use their wealth for her own benefit. There are different tactics she uses to achieve this goal. She specifically chooses physically and emotionally weak men so that she can easily control them. For instance, for her first three marriages, she chose old and rich men because they were the easiest to manipulate. In line 196 of her prologue she says “the first three men were good, and rich, and old, they were scarcely able to keep the statue by which they were bound to me. They had given me their land and their treasure; I no longer needed to be diligent to win their love.” She knew that they would soon die and she would inherit all of their fortunes. When Alisoun had achieved her goal of becoming wealthy, she moved on to a different type of man. With almost all of her husbands she used guilt as her tool. In her prologue she explicitly states that she falsely accused her husbands so that she could gain the upper hand in their relationships “I boldly accused my old husbands of speaking in their drunkenness: and all were false but I called on Jankin and my niece as witness.” Because she knew that the husbands could find a way to abuse her mentally, physically, and emotionally, and confront her for things she had done like cheating, she made sure that she confronted them first, whether or not her accusations were false. When she accused them, it brought the men joy because it gave an impression of caring.
Throughout her prologue she finds ways to justify what she does because deep down she knows that her actions are morally wrong. She uses biblical passages to justify her many marriages and her sexual behaviors. For instance she says that Solomon had many wives, therefore she can marry as many times as she wants. Her interpretation of biblical teachings is that it is better to be married than have sex out of wedlock. She also says that God made our bodies with the body parts that we have so that we can use them. There are many theories why The Wife of Bath acts the way that she does.
One of the theories could be that she got married too young. Alisoun first got married when she was twelve years old and she continued to marry following each husbands death. Because she was married off at such a young age, like many young girls during the medieval times, her youth was taken away from her. She never truly got to experience her youth without a husband being by her side. In order to compensate for lost time, she would have to make sure that she had total control over her life, including gaining control of the men she marries. This theory could also explain why her physical appearance is the way it is. In the prologue to the Canterbury tales, Chaucer describes Alisoun’s character as an older, unattractive woman who wore very fine clothing. Because of her age and her unattractiveness, the extravagant clothing boosts her self-esteem. In line 338-347 she argues that she doesn’t dress to attract men despite what her husband may think. So the only other explanation is that she dresses this way to make herself feel better. In her tale of the knight, the old woman at the end of the story reflects what Alisoun desires most which is complete control and be beautiful just like how the old lady turns young and beautiful at the end of her
story. The Wife of Baths youthful experiences to marriages have led her to take certain actions toward her husbands. This explains her unconventional approach to marriage and her powerful, yet deceiving actions. Her controlling motivations make her one of the most intriguing characters in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.