Archetypes In The Wife Of Bath's Tale

The Canterbury Tales are timeless stories that account for what the author, Goeffrey Chaucer, saw in medieval society. The characters, who each represent an archetype in society, have their own tales. Chaucer describes them in great detail, and they are collectively on a pilgrimage to Canterbury, bringing in many diverse characters of different social and economic status. One particular character, the Wife of Bath, also known as Alisoun, is worldly and experienced due to her extensive travels on pilgrimages as well as her five husbands who she successfully manipulates. From her past marriages and inheritance, she gains riches, and extensive knowledge of the Bible and other literary texts. In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” Chaucer utilizes characterization,

The tale begins with a knight who “saugh a mayde walkynge hym biforn,/Of which mayde anon, maugree hir heed,/By verray force, he rafte hire maydenhed” (ll.886-888). Here, the knight abuses his own power, and, according to societal ideas, he dishonors her by taking away her virginity. When King Arthur’s court discovers this crime, the knight is brought before them to be executed. The Queen asks King Authur if she can intervene and he agrees. She says, “I grante thee lyf, if thou kanst tellen me/What thyng is it that wommen moost desiren. [...] Yet wol I yeve thee leve for to go/A twelf-month and a day, to seche and leere/An answere suffisant in this mateere” (ll.904-910). He leaves, devastated, trying to seek out an answer to her question. After nearly a year of searching, he encounters a group of women dancing in the forest. As he approaches they disappear, leaving just one elderly woman who teaches him what women truly want. The knight returns to answer the Queen, saying “‘My lige lady, generally,’ quod he,/‘Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee/As wel over hir housbond as hir love, And for to been in maistrie hym above” (ll.1037-1040). This plays into the moral of the story; the Wife of Bath conveys to the listener that a woman’s happiness stems from her superiority over her husband in every respect. Later on in the tale, after the knight is miserably trapped in marriage with the elderly woman from the forest, she asks why he is so downcast, he replies, “Thou art so loothly, and so oold also,/ And therto comen of so lough a kynde” (ll.1100-11001). She gives him a choice: she can be rebellious and beautiful, or she could be old, humble, and obedient. He defers the decision to her, so, in kind, she becomes both beautiful and obedient, saying “‘Thanne have I gete of yow maistrie,’ quod she” (l.1236). In other words, since the knight gave her