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Summary and Analysis The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale

The Wife of Bath shares her life experiences and views on marriage in her prologue, emphasizing her belief in the value of personal experience over authority. She recounts her five marriages, asserting her control over her husbands and her preference for sexual pleasure, while detailing her tumultuous relationship with her fifth husband, Jankyn. The tale that follows introduces a young knight who must learn what women truly desire after committing a crime, reflecting the Wife's theme of female sovereignty.

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Mark Chester Cerezo
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131 views1 page

Summary and Analysis The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale

The Wife of Bath shares her life experiences and views on marriage in her prologue, emphasizing her belief in the value of personal experience over authority. She recounts her five marriages, asserting her control over her husbands and her preference for sexual pleasure, while detailing her tumultuous relationship with her fifth husband, Jankyn. The tale that follows introduces a young knight who must learn what women truly desire after committing a crime, reflecting the Wife's theme of female sovereignty.

Uploaded by

Mark Chester Cerezo
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Summary and Analysis 

The Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale

Summary

Before the Wife begins her tale, she shares information about her life and her
experiences in a prologue. The Wife of Bath begins her lengthy prologue by announcing
that she has always followed the rule of experience rather than authority. Having
already had five husbands "at the church door," she has experience enough to make
her an expert. She sees nothing wrong with having had five husbands and cannot
understand Jesus' rebuke to the woman at the well who also had five husbands.
Instead, she prefers the biblical command to go forth and multiply.

To defend her position, the Wife refers to King Solomon, who had many wives, and to
St. Paul's admonishment that it is better to marry than to burn. Having shown a
knowledge of the Bible, she challenges anyone to show her that
God commanded virginity. Furthermore, sexual organs are made both for functional
purposes and for pleasure. And unlike many cold women, she has always been willing
to have sex whenever her man wants to.

The Wife of Bath then relates tales about her former husbands and reveals how she
was able to gain the upper hand ("sovereignty") over them. Unfortunately, just at the
time she gains complete mastery over one of her husbands, he dies. Then she explains
how she gained control over her fifth husband.

At her fourth husband's funeral, she could hardly keep her eyes off a young clerk named
Jankyn, whom she had already admired. At the month's end, she and Jankyn were
married, even though she was twice his age. As soon as the honeymoon was over, she
was disturbed to find that Jankyn spent all his time reading, especially from a collection
of books that disparaged women. One night, he began to read aloud from this
collection, beginning with the story of Eve, and he read about all the unfaithful women,
murderesses, prostitutes, and so on, that he could find. Unable to tolerate these stories
any longer, the Wife of Bath grabbed the book and hit Jankyn so hard that he fell over
backwards into the fire. He jumped up and hit her with his fist. She fell to the floor and
pretended to be dead. When he bent over her, she hit him once more and again
pretended to die. He was so upset that he promised her anything if she would live. And
this is how she gained "sovereignty" over her fifth husband. From that day until the day
he died, she was a true and faithful wife for him. Her tale, which follows, reiterates her
belief that a happy match is one in which the wife has control.

A lusty young knight in King Arthur's court rapes a beautiful young maiden. The people
are repulsed by the knight's behavior and demand justice. Although the law demands
that the knight be beheaded, the queen and ladies of the court beg to be allowed to
determine the knight's fate. The queen then gives the knight a year to discover what
women most desire.

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