The Wife of Bath has been called and depicted as a pioneer feminist who fought for sexual equality long ago. In the fifteenth century, Chaucer’s visionary protagonist was a fascinating and modern perspective on women’s rights. She spends much of her prologue deconstructing common biases that have confined women in her era to passive and subservient occupations. As a result, if it were read alone, her prologue might be considered one of the greatest examples of female autonomy in historical writing.
However, while the Wife of Bath’s words may initially ring of feminism and equality, a closer look at her actions and behaviors reveal a different story. The Wife is actually quite contradictory in her quest for sexual equality. On one hand, she calls for an equal balance of power between men and women in relationships. On the other hand, she admits to using her sexuality as a means to control her husbands and gain materialistic items from them. This paradox creates a confusing message about what the Wife of Bath really wants for herself and other women.
It is important to note that the Wife of Bath is not alone in her contradiction. Many other characters in The Canterbury Tales also present themselves as both good and bad, depending on which action or story is being considered. What sets the Wife of Bath apart, however, is that her contradiction is directly related to her quest for sexual equality. While other characters may have conflicting qualities that are not related to a specific goal or belief, the Wife’s contradictions all center around her attempt to achieve sexual equality.
The Wife’s first contradiction can be seen in her views on marriage. On the one hand, she believes that marriage should be an equal partnership between a man and a woman. She says, “I believe that married folk should be equally yoked… each must take half the burden” (Chaucer 477). Here, the Wife is calling for a more equal distribution of power between husband and wife. She believes that each partner should share in the responsibilities of the marriage, and neither should have more power than the other.
However, the Wife also believes that the woman should be the one in control of the marriage. She states, “In our bed, we women ought to rule” (Chaucer 476). Here, she is saying that it is the woman’s right to be the one in charge of sex within the marriage. She believes that the woman should have control over when and how often sex occurs, and that the man should not be able to force himself on his wife.
But, when her works as a whole are considered, her section of the General Prologue, prologue, and tale are evident. In her introduction, she boldly claims equality with her story of the knight and the hag but subsequently destroys her case in her following tale.
The Wife of Bath contradicts her position for sexual equality and delays the momentum she had built in her previous works by allowing the hag to take advantage of her place, rewarding the knight for his chauvinistic behavior, and countering her own viewpoint with a variety of questionable facts.
In The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath is a very controversial character. She calls for sexual equality between men and women, but then tells a story that contradicts her own position. In her prologue, she talks about how women are just as good as men, and how they should be treated equally. However, in her tale, she tells a story about a man who mistreats a woman and is ultimately rewarded for it.
This contradiction creates confusion about what The Wife of Bath really believes concerning sexual equality. While she may believe that women are equal to men, her story suggests that maybe she doesn’t believe that after all. Ultimately, this inconsistency weakens her argument for sexual equality and makes it less convincing overall.
In other words, the hag used her looks to lure in the knight which she then proceeds to teach him a lesson with. This is where the Wife of Bath’s principles come into play. She does not deny that women enjoy having multiple sexual partners, but she does believe that this should be a choice and not a mandate. The hag could have easily taken advantage of the knight and slept with him without his consent, but she didn’t. Instead, she waited until he was fully on board with the idea and even then gave him an out if he so chose it.
The Wife of Bath’s principles are based on the belief that sexual equality is something that should be strived for. Everyone, regardless of gender, should be able to make their own choices when it comes to sex. The hag could have taken advantage of the knight, but she didn’t because she believed that he deserved the same choice that she would want in the same situation.
Instead, she rewards him at the end by changing into a beautiful woman after supposedly gaining sovereignty over him. Not only is the reader left with the superficial impression that the hag may have no inner beauty to rely on, but digging deeper may reveal that a woman’s only good qualities are her physical features.
This is where the Wife of Bath’s reflexive contradiction comes in. On one hand, she is striving for sexual equality with men. She wants to be their equal in bed and out, to be able to do everything that they can do including enjoying multiple partners. On the other hand, though, she ultimately changes herself into a stereotype of what a man would want his ideal woman to be – beautiful, sexually submissive, and wifely. So while she is fighting for sexual equality, she is also reinforcing the stereotype that women are only good for their looks and satisfying men sexually.
The Wife of Bath’s reflexive contradiction ultimately leaves the reader wondering if she really is fighting for sexual equality or if she is just trying to create a world where she can be the queen of all hags, ruling over men with her sexuality. Either way, it is an interesting dichotomy that provides food for thought long after the story is done.
