For Monday: Chaucer, The Wife of Bath's Tale

Answer TWO of the questions for next time--and yes, this very short Tale has inspired five questions! There's just so much going on here...

Q1: Obviously, we can't read this Tale without the Prologue looming large in our sight. We read everything through the Wife's voice and opinions. And yet, how might we read this story differently without the Prologue? What if we didn't know the Wife was telling it, and assumed it was just a kind a fairy tale told by a man (as it really is)? What would change about the story and/or its intentions? Or would it remain roughly the same? 

Q2: Did you find it strange that the Wife of Bath is telling a story more similar to Sir Gawain and the Green Knight than The Miller’s Tale? Why do you think she chose to do this? Why might a story of chivalry misplaced, magic, and King Arthur suit her personality and interests? Does this go against the grain of the Prologue? Or develop its central themes? (Incidentally, scholars have evidence that this story was originally meant for someone else, and Chaucer gave it to the Wife in a later revision…)

Q3: The question posed to the Knight—“What thing it is that women most desire”—is somewhat ridiculous and of course utterly subjective; and yet, when the women of court hear his answer, all of them agree that it is utterly true. What do you make of this response? Does this answer flatter men or women the most? And do you think Chaucer believes it himself, or is this merely the work of the Wife?

Q4: At the very end of the story, instead of sleeping with the Old Woman as he promised, the Knight laments that "You are so loathy, and so old also,/And come from such low lineage, no doubt,/Small wonder that I wallow and writhe about” (166). How does this compare with Gawain’s own ‘failure’ before the Green Knight? Which one has failed chivalry worse? Or are they different sides of the same coin?

Q5: Does the ‘happy ending’ of the Tale simply a re-writing of the Wife’s own history with her fifth husband? Has she merely tricked him into an uneasy truce through her own lies and deceit? Or does the ending strike at something different—and more subversive—than even the Wife understands? (does Chaucer take over, in other words)?