Women's Lib in Chaucer's England

The Wife of Bath was not the same type of woman we have been reading about in our other stories.  She does not seem to buy into the fact that women are of secondary importance when compared to men.  This view seems to be so contrarian to the rest of the literature we have studdied this year.  Most of the few women that we have read about don't have any real ambitions for themselves.  Their views of their place in society come from the status of their husbands.  Clearly these type of views don't represent the Wife of Bath.  Thus, if Chaucer based her on a real person then that women was an early leader in the women's movement.

Although we are not reading all of Canterbury Tales in this class, it is noteworthy that there are real differences between the prologue and story of the Wife of Bath and most of the other stories in Chaucer's book.  The main change is that the Wife of Bath's tale matches her prologue.  She has a certain opinion that she basically spells out in her prologue and then has a story which reinforces her beliefs.  Many of the other stories in Chaucer's work don't have that same format.  Many of them seem to be told out of spite in response to the other stories that have already been told.  The whole contest seems to become a case of oneupsmanship (is that a word?) over the course of their pilgrimage to Canterbury.

It is really pretty refreshing to see the Wife of Bath stay on point in her attempts to educate her fellow travelers.  The views she presents in her prologue and story would be beyond controversial for the day.  It is great that she is able to weave them into a couple of different stories without making them really personal.  Just like Chaucer doesn't own his views by saying the whole book was something he overheard on his trip to Canterbury, the Wife of Bath doesn't own her views by saying that these were events that happened a long time ago.  This clever subterfuge allows her to at least get people thinking about the things that she finds important in getting women fair and equal treatment with men.

It is probably worth noting that she doesn't seek just equality for women.  In truth, it appears that she finds women superior to men.  This would have been an even more radical idea for the times.  While we will never know the answer, it would sure be interesting to know if Chaucer based this character on a real woman in his life.  The ideas that the Wife of Bath presented in her story and prologue are not used throughout the rest of the tales, so Chaucer did a great job of making his novel feel like it really did have different voices telling the stories.  Since the work was never finished, we don't know which story would have won the contest, but it seems pretty likely that the stories and views of theWife of Bath would not have been a contender.  But, it does allow the readers of today see some of the initial sparks of the women's liberation movement that was to come.