Masculinity in The Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale Essay

Masculinity in The Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale The Wife of Bath, with the energy of her vernacular and the voraciousness of her sexual appetite, is one of the most vividly developed characters of The Canterbury Tales. At 856 lines her prologue, or preambulacioun as the Summoner calls it, is the longest of any of the pilgrims, and matches the General Prologue but for a few lines. Evidently Chaucer is infatuated with Alisoun, as he plays satirically with both gender and class issues through the Wifes robust rhetoric. Scholars and students alike have continued this obsession with her, and as a consequence Chaucers larger than life widow has been subject to centuries of scrutiny. Indeed, she is in the vast†¦show more content†¦Importantly, Alisoun refers to ancient patriarchs - not only is she prepared to acknowledge the male monopoly on politics, but also the deep rooted nature of their hegemony, a recognition reinforced by the setting of her tale in  ³tholde dayes of the King Arthour ². Chaucer has created a woman who in spite of her fierce social ambitions, remains acutely aware of the civil order of her time. Masculinity also manifests itself clearly in the scholasticism to which the Wife continually refers: St. Paul, St. Jerome and Theophrastus. Once again these are historical figures, and though she aims to castrate their learned authority with her own experience, the very fact they are mentioned is an assertion of their erudite dominance. Ironically the bombast theology of such figures is applauded as much as it is assaulted: Ovids Midas is cited for her own purposes in the tale, while Ptolemy is exalted in the prologue: Of alle men yblessed moot he be, The wise astrologien, Daun Ptholome... (323-324) Her reference to the wise astrologien echoes her description of Solomon as the wise king; clearly in both cases she holds their intellect in the highest regard. Perhaps most surprising in the Wifes tone is the humility which arises from her near religious adoration of the man, and as these lines illustrate, there remains a degree of subservience on Alisouns part. Beneath herShow MoreRelatedThe Wife Of Bath, By Geoffrey Chaucer Essay1487 Words   |  6 Pagesas they were subverted into a secondary class position that deprived them of agency and sexual satisfaction. 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