The Wife (Canterbury Tales)

A detailed Summary of The Wife (Canterbury Tales)

The clerk tells his tale as a rebuttal to the "Wife of Bath's" story, each tale has an opposing view about which sex is more dominant than another. The woman of Bath is a woman that speaks her mind without being afraid of her image, which was very uncommon during this time. She is very knowledgeable about history and real life experiences. She uses the tale of "Metellius, that filthy lout"(270), and religious aspects to support her views. Her belief about the fair treatment of women was a new perspective to most people. Her tale is more on the feminist side, whereas the clerk tells a story in response about dominance in relationships. This is taunting the woman of Bath and her beliefs by telling this story. She believes that marriage and sex aren't of great significance, she uses these as props to increase her money or power. From the beginning they are different; her prologue is very long and in depth, whereas the clerk delves right into his story. In fact he is told by his colleagues to "put things plainly"(321) and not to "tell a tale to send us all asleep"(321). He withholds his true emotions about sexism and mastery until he has completed the tale. Whereas the woman first began by sharing her feelings, then told he

In the "Wife of Bath's Tale" the "queen, and other ladies too implored the king to exercise his grace so ceaselessly, he gave the queen the case"(282). These women had control over the king and they used it to their advantage. They were enabled to judge the knight and punish him to what they felt was necessary and correct. The women in this book took on the reversal role and were the masters of men. The queen desired the knight to discover woman's true feelings, she felt he would be incapable because he was a man. The knight is lost about what the answer could be until the old wise lady comes to his rescue. In the woman's prologue she proudly discusses her own masteries over men, "there's one thing at least that I can boast, that in the end I always ruled the roast; cunning or force was sure to make them stumble, and always keeping up a steady grumble"(269). She used many techniques to keep men at her beck and call. The men in her story depended upon and succumbed to women. The older lady puts the knight to a test so he realizes that she was in control of their marriage. As a reward, once he was willing to accept this, she altered her appearance and to keep him obedient.

The woman of Bath shows that when women display their sexual appeal to men they viewed this "as a danger to her chastity"(267). Men critiqued the way women dressed, men wanted to control their appearance. They wanted women to look beautiful but at the same time not too revealing, there was a fine line that women walked on. Women needed to meet the standards of men rather than their own. The woman from Bath paints a portrait of women that is more realistic. Her fellow colleagues were probably shocked to learn that women were pleasure seeking and had such control over men. Both storytellers use knowledgable and wise women in both of their tales. In the "Clerk's Tale" the wife is described as being "wise, and so lovely in her eloquence"(322). The old women in the "Wife of Bath's Tale" knew the answer to the question was able to trick the knight into marrying her. She was very cunning and had a strategy devised to get the knight to become more considerate towards her and women. Despite the two storytellers apparent disagreements when depicting women, they do agree that the ideal women is knowledgable.

In the "Clerk's Tale" Griselda suffers through a great deal of emotional pain in her husband's test of loyalty and patience. The marquis knew his wife was loyal but "longed to expose her constancy to test"(333). He went to such an extent to take away her kids and discard her as a wife, all to discover if she would remain obedient. She remained "as humble and as quick to serve, and in her love as she was wont to be"(338), despite his attempts to prove her unfaithful. The clerk didn't understand "the need of heaping trial on her more and more?"(333). He felt t

Some common words found in the essay are:
Clerk's Tale, Wife Bath, Bath's Tale, Wife Bath's, Tale Griselda, woman bath, clerk's tale, , wife bath's, women control, true feelings, clerk tells, woman bath women, money power, whereas clerk, tale envoy, bath's tale, wife bath knight, wife bath's tale,

Approximate Word count = 1934
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English