The Three Theological Virtues Revealed: The Wife of Bath’s Tale

The Wife of Bath’s Tale is likely the single-most selected work from Chaucer’s corpus to be used in the classroom. Yet this tendency to single it out also works to obscure the Tale’s role in the larger story, the connections which the Tale draws upon.

Significantly, it is the first Tale since the Knight’s to return to a matter of high romance, though instead of a courtly retelling of the Matter of Rome—all retellings of Greek and Roman classics, mythical, historical, or anything else were considered part of the “Matter of Rome”—this time it is the story of a knight errant “in th’olde dayes of the Kyng Arthour” (Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales Fragment D, 857). The Wife of Bath too displays her knowledge in her narrative as well as her prologue of the classics, particularly of “Boece” (Fragment D, 1168). Nor is she remiss to mention proof of her experience with more recent auctores such as Dante, whose Convivio she paraphrases (Fragment D, 1125-1130), or her own experience in the subject matter of her tale, which, she argues, qualifies her to act as an “auctoritee” even if no other such one existed (Fragment D, 1-3). Lastly, her thematic topic for her Tale is that of love and the proper relationship between men and women. All of these act as signs which the Wife of Bath uses to assert her position as one of the more dignified members of the pilgrims, worthy to be counted among the ranks of the Knight and the Man of Law. Both her choice of subject matter and her allusions to Boethius assert her right to partake in their particular conversation; her own learning and experience likewise her ability to receive their arguments and to contribute her own modifications and rebuttals.

This attempt at self-elevation aligns well with Anna Leman’s argument about the critique in the Tale on true nobility deriving from character and not lineage, but here we see this elevation serves a particular purpose for the narrator, placing her and her story at an equal footing with the Knight and the Man of Law. Furthermore, though she critiques the traditional notion of nobility, she does not outright condemn it, for the Wife of Bath’s Tale ends not in tragedy but in Tolkien’s Eucatastrophe, an unlooked for, fairy-tale like happy ending. For “Whan the knyght saugh verraily al this, / that she so fair was, and so yong therto, / for joye he hente hire in his armes two. / His herte bathed in a bath of blisse…and thus they lyve unto hir lyves ende / in parfit joye” (Fragment D, 1250-58).

Furthermore, this is the first text where the tale and the teller’s interpretation of the tale begin to diverge. The Wife takes the tale to mean “men, obey your wives or live short lives” (“and eek I praye Jhesu shorte hir lyves / that noght wol be governed by hir wyves” (Fragment D 1261-2)), but the fairy tale ending goes beyond such shallow assertions.  The knight does indeed choose to submit to his wife’s wishes, saying

But this choice elicits the same response from his wife, for having gained the “mastery” (1236) of her husband, she promises to be a true wife to him (1243-4) and bids him “dooth with my lyf and deth right as yow lest” (1248).

Thus the knight’s submission to his wife leads not to her mastery over him but her own requisite obedience to him. It is through this mutual love, service, and obedience, then, that they are able to live their happily ever after. It is this implication, not the Wife’s own faulty interpretation, which elevates her Tale into the lofty debate of the nobler pilgrims, offering high sentence and consolation. Where the Man of Law elevated the obedience of a wife to her husband as an allegory for the Church’s submission to Christ, and where the Knight made his happy ending the reward of ardent love, devotion, and prayer, the Wife of Bath’s Tale emphasizes the requisite submission and obedience of the husband to his wife as the key to a happy marriage. None of these high sentiments, interestingly, actually contradict each other, while all three offer great consolation. The debate, then, is not over the general characteristics of a good marriage but over the particulars, the emphasis of each serving as a kind of revelation of the respective pilgrim’s character and interest. The Knight, devotion, or hope; The Man of Law, faith; The Wife of Bath, service, or charity.