Wrote The Canterbury Tales (1386): religious
pilgrimage by characters from mid-class English society. The
Innkeeper proposes a story-telling contest. The prologue
describes each character & framework of the story.
The Wife of Bath: rich social structure had developed
though partially destroyed by Black Death Plague.
The 3 Estates had typical Vices
Clerics: minister the gospel & teach. Their vices were
getting rich, fat, or having sex.
Knights: Knights were given land for allegiance, which was
passed down to his sons. Cowardice or abuse peasants
Peasants: tend fields Laziness.
Mercantile: predecessor to capitalism; grew from the peasant
class. They gained social status by marrying aristocrats.
Mercantile class became wealthy through trade.
"Great
Chain
of Being": hierarchy that was unilinear (one chain without
branches). Place on chain determined by your distance from God.
Not really unilinear because too difficult to decide which things
to place higher.
Caste system was based on this. Clergy (Pope); Knights (King
& those who protect Clergy); Peasants.
If you leave your place, you disrupt the chain (rebellion).
Person who allows passion to control his reason gets knocked down
the chain. If you usurp another’s spot, get knocked down.
Idea behind chain: if everyone stays in his place, life will be
perfect.
Wife of Bath: What do women want? To be above men; closer
to God. They were considered less perfect than men. Wants
dominance over men. Wife of Bath did not question that if it
happened, passion would rule over reason.
The wife is responding to a debate that had been going on for
centuries regarding the place of women in the universe and
society. The clergy she criticizes focused on the subordinate
place of women in society. The aristocratic tradition of courtly
love was one in which the man pledged to do whatever his
lady commanded, giving her the superior place in the hierarchy.
Equality of men and women was something that neither side
considered much.
The concept of the great
chain
of being gave the medieval mind a way of comparing things
from different sections of the chain. This type of comparison goes
back to Plato's Republic, where Plato uses the ideal state
as a model for the way the properly balanced person should live.
What happens in the macrocosm (universe) is reflected in the
mesocosm (society) and microcosm (individual).
One popular set of such links was to compare the human dominance
over animals (especially the horse) to the husband's control of
the wife and the reason's control of passion.
Macrocosm (universe)
Mesocosm (society)
Microcosm (individual)
human
|
horse
husband
|
wife
reason
|
passion
The story of "The Wife of Bath" is a part of
an acrimonious medieval debate over the place of women in
society It was first called the "querelle de la Rose"
(the debate over the Rose) and later called the "Querelle
des Femmes" (the debate about women). It started
regarding Jean de Meun's Romance of the Rose on the
grounds that it encouraged immorality and denigrated women
(Richards xxiv, Quilligan, Allegory 20). The debate actually has
roots reaching back into ancient society -- like Adam and Eve in
Genesis, Pandora in Hesiod's Theogyny -- and continues in
some ways today. This debate was often ugly, even
hysterical. For example John
Knox titles one of his works "The First Blast of the Trumpet
Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women"
<http://www.swrb.com/newslett/actualnls/FirBlast.htm> in
1559 to protest the reign of Queen Mary. It made him unpopular
with not only her but later with her half-sister Elizabeth.
Similar fears about powerful women are still around and can be
seen in references to "Billary Clinton" and "feminazis."
After a fight with her fifth husband, Jankyn/Jenkin, he gave
her the "bridal" and whip, the symbol of reason governing
passion as man governs horse. Is it reasonable for horse to ride
man or wife to govern husband or passion to override reason? It
is a rebellion against the sacred order of things. We also see
the overthrow of reason by passion, man by woman, and human by
animal in the story of "Phyllis
and Aristotle".
Woman needs man to govern her because she can’t control
herself; like a horse, she’d run wild.
Man concerned with spiritual things. Woman = animal. If a
woman is in control is the rebellion of passion over reason..
Emblem of Governance: Knight ruling horse. To succeed in
battle, he must control the horse.
Wife of Bath wants to rule.
In the legend of Good Woman, Angel tells Chaucer to write
good about women because he’d been saying too much bad about
them.
Debate in late 1300’s about women’s place in society. Were
women really less perfect, more passionate? The Book of the
City of Ladies, written in early 1400’s by Christine de
Pizan, clerk in French Court, wrote for patronage. She read a
book that angered her. Had vision of 3 ladies: Temperance,
Wisdom, and Justice.
First line: Experience has no authority because it can lead
you astray. You were supposed to believe what you read, not base
ideas on your own experience.
Wife of Bath feels her experience is sufficient
though. Started marrying at 12.
Canterbury Tales: group traveling to Canterbury for
pilgrimage. Only pastor and knight had sincere reasons. Holiest spot
in England. Wife of Bath going for fun.
Two kinds of love:
Caritas: God’s love is
unselfish. Mary: pure white bread.
Cupiditas: following Cupid.
Represents WOB lust. Not true, selfless love. She had Mark of
Venus.
WOB considered bad because she follows desire.
Wife of Bath: is "barley bread" which Jesus fed multitude
with. Virginity is the white bread and has its place for a few,
but she thinks that marrying has its place because society would
die off if people didn’t reproduce.
Line 93: wishes for half the number of husbands as Solomon
had wives.
Line 120: Why did God make men & women different if
virginity is so great? Asks if genitals are just for expelling
urine? They should be used. Sex is OK to her. Man owes wife duty –
sex. She doesn’t have sex as much as she wants when she marries
because she makes husbands give gifts for it (pay for it).
Had 5 husbands
3 were good; 2 were bad
First 4 were old & rich
The last one she married for love.
She was 40 & #5 was 20.
To her to get her way with her first husband, she falsely
accuses her first husband of saying terrible things. He’s drunk
& can’t disprove her because he doesn’t remember. The
things she says he said are actually from our old friend Jerome, who claimes that his
source was Theophrastus'
"Golden Book of Marriage."
Men should be more patient & understanding than women
since they have Reason. Husband #4 had a lover; #5 hit her.
#4-had lover; #5 was 20, she was 40 – loved him. He reads a
book that says bad stuff about women. Makes her mad; she rips
pages out & he hits her; then apologizes and gives her the
bridal/whip.
Her Story: One of King Arthur’s knights rapes a virgin in the
woods. This is the basest assertion of his masculine authority over
the feminine. Condemned to death, but Queen intervenes. Now the man
is at the mercy of woman. She says he can live if he can figure out
what women really want; he must learn to think like a woman.
Punishment to fit crime. Spends year seeking answer.
Every woman has different answer. On way back, he runs into
a fairy circle.
Combines riddle and loathsome lady.
Meets disgusting woman who tells him answer than women want
dominance. Has to let her have dominion to find answer &
learn to respect her. She wants marriage from him so he has to
take her as wife. He doesn’t want to consumate the marriage
because she’s a hag. She asks him which he prefers: ugly, true
wife or beautiful one who might cheat on him. Lets him decide.
He gets beautiful, young wife because he gives her
dominance. In story, roles reversed. She actually has reason
(a wise old hag) while the knight was governed by his male
passion, so it’s better that she be in charge anyway.