The Wife of Bath Anonymous

The Wife of Bath is often considered an early feminist, but by reading her prologue and tale one can easily see that this is not true. In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath believes that a wife ought to have authority and control over her husband. The Wife's ideas were indisputably uncommon for her time period and she shocked her audience with her radical opinions, but perhaps that was her intention. One should also note that the Wife of Bath did possess weaknesses towards men despite her air of confidence, and it is likely that her outspokenness is a sort of defense mechanism. Since feminism traditionally denotes a belief in equality between the sexes, it is easy to see that the Wife doesn't support feminism but instead the manipulation of men for her own benefit.

Both the Wife of Bath's prologue and tale illustrate her belief that men should allow themselves to "be ruled by their wives" (176) and the Wife, or Dame Alice, repeatedly emphasizes that she has no problem physically and psychologically abusing her husbands. The wife's first three husbands were old and rich, simple tools. Her fourth husband was like the wife's male counterpart - promiscuous and stubborn as...