Feminism in “The Wife of Bath”
Written by Ariel Smith
Show me a time or text where God disparages
Or sets a prohibition upon marriages
Expressly, let me have it! Show it me!
And where did He command virginity?
I know as well as you do, never doubt it,
All the Apostle Paul has said about it;
He said that as for precepts he had none.
One may advise a woman to be one;
Advice is no commandment in my view.
He left it in our judgment what to do.
The excerpt above is from the “The Wife Of Bath’s Tale Prologue” in the book The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, a collection of stories given by travelling pilgrims in a storytelling contest. This particular tale is being told by the Wife Of Bath, a woman who has had five husbands and is not afraid to advertise that fact. In her prologue, the reader is given her history and some insight on how she views the concept of marriage, and the importance of virginity.
Given that this text was written in the 14th century, it has the rhythm and flow often used in Middle Age texts, i.e, it rhymes. This automatically makes the piece timeless in a sense because it has this poetic nature and makes it easy for the passage to be remembered by audiences. The Wife of Bath is providing the evidence for an argument about whether virginity is a requirement by God and if he would approve of being married multiple times, basically validating her way of living. Right from the beginning, she sets the stage for her argument: directly asking for an example of God himself “disparaging” marriages. By using the words “disparage” and “prohibition”, she is asking when God has said marriages are of little worth or
unlawful. Through the Wife of Bath, Chaucer is also intentionally setting the conversation around marriages, plural, and not just marriage as that would change the context of the question and conversation at hand. The Wife of Bath is not here to prove whether one should marry, but how many times one can be married. Immediately, this is followed by her questioning the importance of virginity. By putting these sentences within direct proximity of each other, The Wife of Bath and by extension Chaucer, is directing this towards the demographic who commonly gets these types of criticisms, and who this argument is in defense of: women. This is later confirmed in the 8th line, “one may advise a woman to be”. A woman who is not a virgin and/or has married more than once needs to be defended as a person who has not violated the laws of God or offended him. Prior to this, she mentions how commonly known male biblical figures like Jacob and Abraham have had “multiple brides” but were still considered to be holy men. She then uses another male biblical reference within the passage by citing Apostle Paul, or better known as Saint Paul. By having the Wife of Bath use all these male biblical references, Chaucer is giving her and her argument credibility, pointing out that if they can be married and still be holy, so can anyone else as that clearly proves it's not a problem.
It also gives her credibility in the sense that it points out the holes in the common interpretation of bible and what God has said itself, often aligning to cosign the actions of men, but then turning around and condemning women for the very same action within the very same context. She then cements her argument by pointing out that being a virgin is not a commandment. It is simply advice, and advice is not required to be taken, putting more value on the individual's judgment. This confirms in the Wife of Bath’s view, everyone is given a choice but neither choice is inherently wrong.
It can be debated on whether the Wife of Bath is a feminist or not, but she definitely points out the hypocrisy and misogynistic way people think of marriage and virginity in regards to gender, whether intentionally or not.