Wife of Bath key quotations and analysis

CONTEXT- Chaucer general

-Late fourteenth-century English poet, seen as ‘Father of English Literature’

-He wanted poetry to be linguistically accessible to all, chose the vernacular English (not Latin or French)

CONTEXT- The Canterbury Tales

“Experience, though noon auctoritee, were in this world is right ynogh for me, to speke of wo that is in mariage”

• Noun ‘experience’ encapsulates the drive behind the WoB’s behaviours and her view of the world

• Subversion/juxtaposition of ‘experience’ with noun ‘auctoritee’ is a syntactical embodiment of the challenges of religious teachings towards women

• Ironic, as she later goes on to use biblical exegesis to justify her position

• Determiner ‘ynogh’ is indicative of the nature of her character as fulfilled and confident, as a result of her past experiences

• Chaucer uses the Wife of Bath as his mouthpiece to create a dichotomy between 'experience' (which the wife claims to have an abundance of) and 'auctoritee' (which the Church had greatly) within his Medieval society

“Hir coverchiefs ful fyne weren of ground;/ I dorste swere they weyeden ten pound" (General Prologue, line 453)

• Example of comic hyperbole by Chaucer. Exaggerating her over the top appearance, and therefore personality

• Metaphor/ symbolism of the Wife’s bold character, use of semiotics

• Could also be a metaphor of her experiences? Kerchiefs conceal around the head and face, reflective of the multi-layered nature of her characterisation

"Stilbourn I was as a lioness", (637) "for as an hors I koulde byte and whyne"

• Use of animal imagery, subtle reference to male criticism “Who peyntede the leoun?'“.

• The simile using the concrete noun “lioness” establishes the wife’s own perception of her ‘auctoritee’. Perhaps she surrenders her ‘femininity’ in order to gain more authority through zoomorphism

• Typical Machiavellian attributes

“Lat hem be breed of pured whete-seed/ And lat us wyves hoten barly-breed/ And yet with barly-breed, Mark telle kan/ Oure Lord Jhesu refresshed many a man” (143)

• Adjective “whete” is a subtle reference to virginity. The emphatic superlative “pured” is reflective of the glorification of purity in Catholicism

• Use of allusion to Medieval society, where white bread was not available to the masses. Shows desirability and rareness of virgins

• Further uses the metaphor of “Barly-breed“ to highlight the irony that it can be enjoyed by many

• The use of comparative language between WoB and Jesus himself is a somewhat comedic biblical allusion

Thou hast yhad five housbondes,--quod he, And that ilke man that now hath thee (WoBT 17-18)

choice of concrete pronouns throughout the tale have emphasis… chaucer’s concrete pronoun choices are a subtle allusion to the wob’s subversion of social norms