Alexis Ankuda W.S. 220 Prof.

Driver The Wife of Bath Alisoun, the Wife of Bath from Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales, is a member of the group on the pilgrimage to Canterbury. While they are stopped at The Tabard inn, the innkeeper challenges the group to tell stories. Whoever tells the best story on the way to Canterbury will have their stay paid for by everyone else on the pilgrimage. Alisoun tells a story that closely resembles a fairy tale. Alisoun does not follow the stereotype of medieval women. In the General Prologue, Alisoun is described by the narrator: A good WYF was ther of bisyde Bathe, But she was somdel deef, and that was scathe. Of clooth-making she hadde swiche an haunt.Bold was hir face, and fair, and reed of hewe (Norton, 13, 14) She is a cloth maker from Bath whose work is very good. We also learn that she was deaf in one ear because on of her husbands hit her in the head. She is pretty, with a rosy complexion. In the Prologue to her tale, she describes her experiences of meeting her husbands: Housbondes at chirche dore I have had five (If I so ofte mygthe have y -wedded be). (Norton, 102) After five husbands, Alisoun says she is an expert on marriage. She has married three of the husbands for their wealth. Her fourth husband was unfaithful to her and died. She married her last husband because she loved him: My fifthe housbonde, God his soule blesse! Which that I took for love and no richesse. (Norton, 114) When her fourth husband dies, she meets her fifth at his funeral.

She stands up for herself when she is criticized for having had five husbands. Women could marry if they were widowed, but not more than once because virginity was sacred. She uses the Bible to give examples of how it was acceptable for the men to have several wives and so it must be acceptable for her to have five husbands: The wife argues for the supreme authority-the souveraintee-of a woman over her husband. (Robinson, 7) Alison is a independent woman that has her own ideas about who has sovereignty in a marriage. She believes that women should have the sovereignty. During medieval times, the knight was a champion of God and ladies. (Power, 19) But in the story Alisoun tells, the hero, a knight in King Arthurs court, is the opposite of the ideal medieval knight. In the story, he rapes a peasant girl. When the peasants complain to the King, the knight is sentenced to death. He is saved by Queen Guinevere and in order for his life to be spared he must answer the question she asks: I grant thee lyf, if thou canst tellen me What thing is it that women most desyren. (Norton, 122) She sends him on his way to find the answer. He asks many women, but finds no definite answer. This is a fair punishment because there is a small chance that he would find the correct answer. The Queen could have let him go to his death but instead she gave him a chance to save himself. When he cannot reach a definite consensus, an old widow asks if she can help. He tells her the problem and she agrees to help him if he will do whatever she wants. He agrees. She tells him the answer and they go to the Queen. He tells the Queen his answer: Wommen desyren to have Sovereyntee As wel over hir housband as her love, And for to been in maistrie him abouve.(Norton, 129) All of the ladies in the court agree that this is the correct answer. He

is forced to recognize that women should have the sovereignty. This is similar to the Prologue because Alison is using her story to make a point about the sovereignty of women over men. When the old woman calls on him to fulfill his promise, he is surprised to find that he has to marry her. Although he reluctantly marries her, she can see that he is not happy. He tells her that his reasons for his unhappiness are because she is old, of a lower and poor. She tells him that even though she is old and poor, she will never be unfaithful to him. To han me foul and old til I deye And be to yow humble wyf.Or ells ye wol han me yong and fair, And take youre aventure of the repair. (Norton, 129, 130) When he is given a choice by his new wife, between her being young and beautiful or old and obedient, he cannot choose, so he leaves the decision in her hands. She tells him that she will be a good wife and reluctantly he decides that he cannot possibly escape and gives in when she asks him for a kiss. The knight gives the woman the sovereignty, or power, in the marriage. He reluctantly kisses her and she is transformed into a young and pretty maiden: When the knight asks her to make the choice--when he admits from within himself the sovereignty of women--then and only then is he truly blessed--and the lady is revealed in all her charms. (Huppe, 381) In letting her make the choice, he must accept she has power over him in order for her to transform. Alisouns Prologue and Tale are part of the marriage group of Chaucers Canterbury Tales. The tellers of these tales include, the Wife of Bath, the Friar, and the Summoner: They deal -- though, to be sure, with skillfully managed dramatic interruptions-with a single subject or topic, the seat and conduct of authority in married life. (Robinson, 7) Alisouns tale of the conquest of husbands is requited by the Clerks Tale about the obedient wife, Patient Griselda.

Medieval women were meant to be obedient: Implicit obedience was part of the ideal of marriage set out in the majority of didactic works addressed to women. (Power, 8) Women were courted by men and married. If they were widowed, they could be married again. However, the ideal state for women in the Middle Ages was virginity and maids were more highly regarded than wives. If the husband died, they could marry again. They worked with their husbands in the trade that he was in. If her husband died, she may take over. Women were allowed to have a trade themselves, and wives and single women could work separately from husbands. Also, women raised the children and ran the household. Alisoun does not follow this way of life. She was married and widowed five times, which was too many for the times. Also, she approached the men. She propositioned the man who would become her fifth husband: I spak to him and seyde him how that he, If I were widwe, sholde wedde me. (Norton, 115) She was still married when she suggested this to the man. Then when her husband died, she married again. This behavior of a married woman suggesting marriage to another man would have been looked down upon in medieval society. Alisouns tale resembles a fairy tale, but with differences. In fairy tales the hero often saves the damsel in distress, but Chaucers hero, on the other hand, encounters a dilemma out of quite a different world. (Schlauch, 417) The woman in Alisouns tale saves him from being executed. The widow in the tale gives the knight a choice between her being pretty and unfaithful, or old and faithful. This is another difference: Fairy tales deal rarely with the alternative of chastity versus infidelity. (Schlauch, 417-418) He is faced with this question and instead of answering; he decides to let the widow answer: the requirement imposed on the hero--that he give precisely the right answer to a crucial question before a spell is broken and

happiness assured--has led to comparisons with many other testings of heroes in popular narrative. (Schlauch, 417) Other stories where the hero must answer a question correctly do not have the same criteria like Alisouns story. In other stories the hero often answers a question himself either through another character, or knowledge that he already has. Alisouns Prologue and Tale makes a case for womens sovereignty. At the end of both the Prologue and the Tale, both women have the full love and control of their husbands. And whan that I hadde geten unto me, By maistre al the soveraynetee. (Norton, 120) I think the Alisoun is an interesting character because she just says what is on her mind and doesnt care what people think. I think that there were many women like her in the Middle Ages. For example, Margery Kempe who had was very outspoken and had visions. I think that Alisouns Prologue and Tale" may have been inspirational for some women in the Middle Ages and some found it inappropriate.

Works Cited Chaucer, Geoffrey. Canterbury Tales. Boston: W. W. Norton, 2005. Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Trans. Nevill Coghill. New York: Penguin Classics, 1951. Huppe, Bernard. Rape and Womans Sovereignty in the Wife of Baths Tale . Modern Language Notes, Vol. 63, No. 6 (Jun., 1948), pp.378-381. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2910104 Accessed: 26/03/2009. Power, Eileen. Medieval Women. Edit MM Postan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1975. Robinson, F.N., ed. The Works of Geoffrey Chaucer. 2nd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1957. Schlauch, Margaret. The Marital Dilemma in the Wife of Baths Tale. PMLA, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Jun., 1946), pp.416-430. http://www.jstor.org/stable/459357 Accessed: 29/03/2009