Geoffrey Chaucer – Wife of Bath

Genre: Comedy / Loathly Lady Motif

Plot Outline: This is a story narrated by one of the Pilgrims from Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’. The story itself comes after a long prologue by the narrator, in which she describes her various husbands and her own sensibilities (or arguable lack thereof). The tale itself is about a knight who is due to be executed for a misdeed, unless he find out within a year exactly what it is that women seek. After finding no answer, the man comes across a loathly lady, who tells him that she will give him the correct answer, if he should pledge to do something for her in return. The man complies readily, and she informs him that all women want is matriarchy. The knight returns and tells the correct answer to the court, whereupon the loathly lady steps forward and tells the knight to marry her. He does so entirely against his own wishes. On their wedding knight, the lady asks the knight a question, whereupon he tells her to do as she wishes, ensuring an ending befitting both of them.

Characters: The Wife herself has come under much critical scrutiny for decades, and for good reason. The narrator of this tale is a lively, rounded character that has that edge of realism that many characters in modern novels seem to lack. Similarly, the Lady in the tale seems to be a character that the reader roots for. Whether by design or accident, the Knight on the other had is someone that changes his mindset drastically within the space of a few lines, and his characterisation seems to change solely for the story, thus making him rather flat. The Knight is also a character that the readership doesn’t particularly care for, and for this reason the anxiety that might be felt for his situation isn’t present.

Style: Well, unless you’ve got yourself a translation, it’s written in Middle English, for a start. The style itself is that of a poem, using a rhyme scheme that is surprisingly easy to follow. Youwill find yourself wanting to read the poem out loud in order to get into the flow properly, but there were no points at which the style doubled back on itself or turned into something else. Consistency ruled ok. Thankfully.

Opinions: I have mixed feelings about this Canterbury Tale. Although I immensely enjoy the portrayal of the Wife herself, the Prologue to the Tale can be rather slow in places. That’s easy enough to skip over however, and apart from the sudden turn of mind the Knight has at the end of the actual tale (something which seemed to go against his character and therefore became a peeve), the story itself is a rather intriguing one. Would I recommend it? Only if you’re familiar with Chaucerian style, and you enjoy similar stories of ‘English Legend’, such as those of King Arthur.

Audience: Young Teenagers +

One Response to “Geoffrey Chaucer – Wife of Bath”

1. Heningburg says:

   March 30, 2010 at 11:52 am

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