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Summary Critical Analysis of "The Wife of Bath"- Revision Notes £3.48
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  3. CCEA
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  5. English Literature
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  7. Unit A2 1 - The Study of Poetry - 1300-1800 and Drama

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Summary Critical Analysis of "The Wife of Bath"- Revision Notes
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This document includes the notes that I've made on five different critical articles on "The Wife of Bath". They cover the themes of experience, religion, marriage, Chaucer, proto feminism, sovereignty, and the reliability of the Wife as a narrator. Using these notes, I achieved an A in all of my es...

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  • March 7, 2025
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  • 2024/2025
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Critical Commentary on “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” by
Geoffrey Chaucer from “The Canterbury Tales”


“Allas! Allas! That evere love was synne!”- Debates about the Wife of Bath-
Nigel Wheale


●​ Arguably, the Wife of Bath’s Prologue is the most revised piece of text in
The Canterbury Tales, showing Chaucer’s focus on her character
●​ “Alisoun” is controversial and polemic, which encourages
reader/audience engagement.
○​ The entertaining aspects (and the performative aspect of the text)
hold the audience’s interest
●​ The sociological context of 14th Century England
○​ Society was recovering from the plague, making the final line
even more shocking (“God sende hem soone verray pestilence!”)
○​ The plague had disrupted the social hierarchy with mass
population loss. This led to a new economic structure as the lower
classes began to improve their social status through business
(like the Wife’s cloth trade).
■​ The Wife’s cloth trade is established early in the General
Prologue (“Of clooth-making she hadde swich an haunt, /
She passed hem Ypres and of Gaunt.”)
■​ This economic independence allows the Wife a degree of
freedom
●​ The undermining of anti-feminist literature
○​ The Wife rejects expectations as a “good wife” (as described in
the Book of Proverbs), who is dedicated to her husband and
children.
○​ Alisoun acknowledges the fact that marriage exists to “wexe and
multiplye”, but does not acknowledge any children of her own,
showing how she uses biblical teachings to her advantage.

,●​ Experience and authority
○​ The prologue can be interpreted as a mock sermon, criticising
Church power and influence over women and marriage
○​ “Experience, though noon auctoritee / Were in this world, is right
ynough for me” (Lines 1-2)- the power of the knowledge gained
from experience is set against the power of written scholarly
authority (particularly from the Catholic Church)
○​ Female “experience” is set against male “learning”
■​ “Experience” is an example of borrowing French language
or English words with franco-influence (French was the
language of court)
○​ Experience can also be seen as sexual experience and
knowledge
■​ “She koude of that art the olde daunce”- General Prologue
●​ Religious undertones
○​ During the 14th Century, there were several anti-clerical
movements which are potentially reflected in Chaucer’s language.
■​ Eg. the Lollard movement which made radical criticisms of
the relationship between the Church, the state, and wider
society
○​ The Church tried to push the general public, especially women,
out of religious power
■​ The Bible wouldn't be translated into English for over a
century
■​ This attitude is seen when the Friar reacts to the Wife’s
contributions to theological argument
■​ “Lete auctoritees, on Goddes name / To prechying, and to
scoles of clergye” (Lines 1274-1277)
○​ The Prologue may be interpreted as a woman’s attempt to
infiltrate the exclusively male domain of the sermon
●​ The Wife of Bath’s Tale

, ○​ At first glance, the Tale is a simple story of wish fulfillment- the
“loathly lady” can be young, beautiful, and of high rank (as the
Wife desires to be).
■​ This would be a typically feminine version of the traditional
parable
○​ The trope of “The Loathly Lady and the Converted Knight” was
common in mediaeval literature, but Chaucer is unique in
including his extensive debate on gentilesse.
■​ “Heere may ye se wel how that genterye / Is nat annexed to
possessioun” (Lines 1146-1147)
●​ The concept of unconditional love in the Wife of Bath
○​ “I ne loved nevere by no discrecioun, / But evere folwede myn
appetit, / Al were he short, or long, or blak, or whit; / I took no kep,
so that he liked me, / How poore he was, ne eek of what degree”
(Lines 622-626)
○​ Messianic unconditional love


Love and Marriage in “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”


●​ The Wife explores themes of misogyny, monogamy, and misogamy.
●​ The Wife embraces sexual pleasure as a virtue.

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