Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”
(pp.1221-1240)
NOTE:
“The Wife of Bath’s Prologue” is part of Chaucer’s great work, The Canterbury Tales, about a group of
14th century Englishmen and women going on a pilgrimage to the
shrine of Thomas of Beckett. To amuse
themselves, each pilgrim tells a story and the rest comment on it
afterward. The most famous is this one,
where a saucy Medieval woman dishes about her married life, love affairs, and
the state of women in general.
Answer
2 of the following...
[Click Below for Questions]
[Click Below for Questions]
1.
How does The Wife of Bath’s Prologue compare to some of the ideas we find in
Sappho or other poets? How does she
give voice to an entire generation of wives and daughters in 14th
century England? Also, do you think her
views are typical for her time (in other words, would she have shocked the
other pilgrims)?
2. Do you feel Chaucer is
sympathetic toward the Wife of Bath, or is he making fun of her sinfulness and
sensuality? How can we tell from the
Prologue? Support your reading from a
specific passage in the Prologue.
3. Why did the Wife of
Bath love her Fifth Husband the most, despite, as she claims, “I pray God keep
and save his soul from hell—And yet he was to me the worst of all?” What does this say about her philosophy of
love and marriage?
4. How modern are the Wife
of Bath’s views on women, love, marriage, and sex? Could one of the Real Housewives of New Jersey, etc., express
these same sentiments? Discuss a line
or passage that seems to you strangely modern despite the passing of several
centuries.
5. The Church in the 14th
century was notoriously corrupt, and yet offered Medieval men and women the
only chance for salvation in the other world.
How does The Wife of Bath discuss the church and its practices in this
Prologue, and why might Chaucer include such blasphemous ideas in his
poem? Do you think he agrees with
this?
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