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Themes of The Wife of Bath in The Canterbury Tales

The prologue of The Wife of Bath explores three main themes: sex, marriage, and domination. During the Middle Ages, sex was seen as sinful unless it was within marriage for the purpose of procreation. Women were viewed as dangerous sexual beings whose cold bodies craved male heat. However, the Wife of Bath glorifies sex and sees it as a natural human need, not something sinful. She dominates her five husbands through sex. The themes of dominance and power are also seen in the knight's rape in the tale. Marriage was believed to be the lowest and least godly state according to the church's social hierarchy, but the Wife of Bath criticizes this view and defends the benefits of marriage.

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Noor Khan
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2K views2 pages

Themes of The Wife of Bath in The Canterbury Tales

The prologue of The Wife of Bath explores three main themes: sex, marriage, and domination. During the Middle Ages, sex was seen as sinful unless it was within marriage for the purpose of procreation. Women were viewed as dangerous sexual beings whose cold bodies craved male heat. However, the Wife of Bath glorifies sex and sees it as a natural human need, not something sinful. She dominates her five husbands through sex. The themes of dominance and power are also seen in the knight's rape in the tale. Marriage was believed to be the lowest and least godly state according to the church's social hierarchy, but the Wife of Bath criticizes this view and defends the benefits of marriage.

Uploaded by

Noor Khan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Themes of The Wife of Bath in The

Canterbury Tales
The prologue of The Wife of Bath caters mainly three themes; sex, marriage and domination. In the
middle age, sex is regarded as a sin and the one who is involved in it illegally is looked down with
scorn. The churches of those times did not approve of the sex.

Geoffrey Chaucer (1343-1400)

The people of those times believed that sex is only for the married couples and it is done just to give
birth to the children. Women were considered as a commodity of sex who are merely dangerous
sexual creatures. Moreover, the medieval science regarded women as having cold bodies which
continually desired contact with the heat of the male. Therefore, it was seen as a woman's nature to
desire for sex voraciously.

The Wife of Bath is, however, does not feel upset with this view of churches and scientists. She
glorifies sex in her own way. She talks about sex with a certain level of dignity as she regards sex a
natural and biological need of human being. The whole section of the tale of Wife of Bath is full of
instances of sex. She proudly announces that in all her life she has never withheld her 'chambre' of
Venus from a good 'felawe' (line 618) and this together with her 'bele chose' (line 447) and her less
politely named 'queynte' (line 444) is the part of her anatomy we become best acquainted with in the
course of the text. The word 'vagina', normally not stated or if mentioned only to be condemned by
medieval authors, is spoken of with zeal by the Wife. Here, the female sexuality is not presented as
sinful as the mediaevalist thought of. The only sexual sin in the text is the rape committed by the
knight in the tale. The sinful 'desire' for sex is not found in a woman, but in a man.

The next unavoidable theme is dominance. The sex in the tale of Wife of Bath and in the tale of the
Knight has nothing to do more with the desire, however, but with the power of dominance. The rape
in the case of the Knight displays the knight exercising power over the woman. The act of rape is
shown as an effort to regain the lost power. In the case of wife’s prologue, it is also the exercise of
the power of domination. She dominated her husbands merely with the weapon of sex. Chaucer’s
theme of dominance does not only comes from the tales, but from the then fourteenth century
society. At that time, there were very few examples of women who could have dominated men. The
strict rules and regulations of the medieval society put them in a place where they had no more
options, but just to obey. The wife of Bath challenged all those suppressive authorities. She dictates
and dominates her five husbands and also tries to control male texts, possessing them and making
twists and turns according to her own interest.

Marriage is another crucial theme in the tale of Wife of Bath in the Canterbury tales. The domination,
marriage and sex are closely interrelated in the tale of wife of Bath. The churches at that time
allowed sex only to the married people. If possible, they would not allow people to marry. A religious
and social hierarchy was created by the church; virgins at the top, then widows who did not remarry,
and then married people at the bottom. It was made to believe that God loves to those who are
virgins, married people are least loved by God. The Wife of Bath vehemently criticizes the hierarchy
and defends the condition and benefits of marriage. Her tale also revolves around the marriage.
Through the Wife of Bath Chaucer puts forward his opinions of marriage, sex and dominance in The
Canterbury Tales.

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