Authority and Experience in The Wife of Bath’s Tale

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Authority and Experience in The Wife of Bath’s Tale
The Wife of Bath's tale was written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1386. The Wife of Bath is
aware of her position in the male-dominated society. She is a victim of the patriarchal world in
the Prologue, and in the Tale, she is a woman who has assumed authority due to her arrogant
assertion. As she cites her experience in the patriarchal society, she reveals the psychic costs as
he survives in the male-dominated culture. Even though the Wife of Bath acquires material
gains, she does not gain societal authority as she does not feel free to express herself without the
risk of retribution. Ultimately, the ongoing pursuit of bridging the gap between genders to
achieve a universal meaning of authority and experience is unsuccessful.
The Wife of Bath's Prologue shows a struggle between genders. While men are
economically powerful and more educated, women are confined to marriages and domestic lives.
They are able to control and trick men only on because of their desire for sex and status. The
Prologue is about the Wife of Bath’s experiences of love and marriage. Chaucer’s Wife of Bath
claims” Experience, though no authorityWere in this world, is right enough for me To speak of
woe that is in marrïage;(476). Thus, she starts her prologue by contrasting “auctoritee” with
“experience” and states that it is her life experiences alone that give her the authority to talk on
the subject of marriage. Throughout the Prologue, The Wife of Bath expresses her views on her
status, marriages and her need to dominate and enjoy an authority. Her narrative begins with a
defense of her many marriages, and she makes it a point to point out that all her marriages are
legal and recognized by the Church. As she has been married numerous times and successfully,

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she deems to have experience and authority on that subject. Chaucer states “She was a worthy
woman all her life... Husbands at churchè door she had had five”: The Wife of Bath enjoys some
authority and worth here as she has been married five times and all her marriages have been legal
(459-460). The Wife of Bath is undeniably the most complex character. She is comfortable on a
fourteenth-century pilgrimage as well as juxtaposing this by being actively involved with the
carnal pleasures of life. She tends to believe that her number of marriages and greater
experience of married life gives her a superior stance. She feels that she has the authority to
speak on marriages and sexual lives because of her experiences in marriage and bed. She feels
more in control over her husband while in bed, however, she seems to only have full authority
when it comes to sex.
Moreover, she tries to exercise her control over her husbands by denying them sexual
pleasure unless there was pleasure in it for her too: “Upon his flesh while that I am his wife. I
have the power during all my life Upon his proper body, and not he” (155). Thus, she made them
work hard to please her at night in bed. “But since I had them wholly in my hand, and since that
they had given me all their land” indicates that as the husbands had already given her their love
and wealth, she need not make an effort elsewhere (210). She advises her audience to not to take
her too seriously as whet she has to tell them will make them laugh” As taketh not a-grief of
what I say, For my intent is not but for to play (190). Chaucer depicts the Wife as a woman with
self-righteous attempts who is about to admit her deceptive tactics in her marriages and how she
looks at them with a satire. She wants the women to pay close attention to what she is about to
say and comments that they should be strict with their husbands and even tell convincing lies to
put them in their place. According to her, women are better liars than men and should use the
skill to their advantage “For half so boldly can there no man Swear and lie as a woman can”

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(225). Thus, the Wife feels that she has always enjoyed an upper hand in her marriages. One can
say that while she is being honest about her scrupulous skills, she is playfully critical of female
society.
The Wife of Bath’s five marital experiences allows her confidence on the subject of
marriage and sex. She has plenty to tell about how women can get the upper hand in marriages
and control their husbands. However, it is uncertain where she stands regarding personal
freedom and womanhood. As a small-time entrepreneur in the textile trade, she carries an
essential skill of making clothes. Despite her skills with textiles and weaving, her choice of
fabrics mars her reputation. Her choice of profession is seen as an unimportant woman’s work as
it is a profession filled mostly by women. While the husbands possess financial wealth helping
them establish authoritative figures in society, they do not have that same authority in the
bedroom. Conversely, while the Wife does not earn massive amounts of wealth, her authority
lies in the bedroom. Herein lies the difference in meaning for authority for men and women. This
indicates that irrespective of experience, the aforementioned domination within the bedroom
does not directly translate externally into power and authority within society for the Wife.
The Wife of Bath finds husband number five Jankyn to be domineering and dislikes his
love of books. He hits her hard for tearing a page out of his beloved book. “For that I rent out of
his book a leaf, Because I tore That of the stroke mine earè waxed all deaf” (635). The Wife of
Bath shows her dislike for the book that Jankin loved to read, Valerius and Theophrastus. The
book talked about the evils of women, and she felt that unless and until a woman was a saint, no
man could write good about her. She wonders if women had written these books, “They would
have writ of men more wickedness” (695). Her husband reads to her about evil women who
murdered their husbands as they slept. Her husband comments that it is much better to be with a