Foreshadowing In The Wife Of Bath's Tale

In lines 445-76 of the General Prologue in The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses characterization, contrast and euphemisms in order to create foreshadowing for the Wife of Bath's tale later on.

The narrator begins this passage with the characterization of the Wife of Bath, meaning the character is introduced and the audience is provided with a description of them that gives a sense of the character's traits either directly through the author or indirectly through the character's actions or thoughts. Chaucer describes the Wife of Bath as "somdel deef" meaning that she is heard of hearing and "of clooth-making she hadde swich an haunt" meaning that she has worked as a cloth maker (446-447). This establishes that she is most likely an older woman as well as a member of the peasant class given that she has had a career in which she has worked at long enough to gain a high degree of skill and since religious leaders and knights would not have had to earn their living by doing manual labour. Already, Chaucer is implying as to the nature of the wife's tale through his account of her given that comedic stories often centred around peasants due to the fact that they were permitted to be less dignified than the nobles. He also goes on to inform the readers of the wife's past before joining the pilgrimage, imparting that "housbondes at

chirche-door she hadde five" and that "of remedies of love she knew par chaunce" (475).

Here a potentially romantic element is introduced to the wife's tale though perhaps not in the typical sense. A widowed woman who remarried at all,

let alone so frequently was almost entirely unheard of in Chaucer's day and the Wife of Bath's unique trait is what most likely influences the more unusual aspects of the romance in her story.

As the passage continues, the Wife of Bath becomes even more curious due to the fact that her personality appears almost paradoxical since Chaucer founded it almost entirely on contrasts. As mentioned before, it is evident that the Wife of Bath possesses some sexual prowess but at the same time "thries hadde she been at Jerusalem" (463) which was a city highly frequented by pilgrims. This shows that for all her conquests, the Wife also seems very much concerned with leading a vitreous existence. It could also be argued that she could very well be atoning for her sins by partaking in so many pilgrimages but she seems to be neither repentant nor even remotely guilty for her actions. The fact that she remains constant in her values allows the Wife to maintain a sense of assertion that does not appear in the other female characters.

This assertiveness is what seems to contribute the most to the Wife’s tale, which appears to be an adaptation of a traditional Arthurian legend. The story follows a young knight who is punished for raping a made in Arthur's court. Arthur denotes his punishment to the queen, who decides that the knight must find out what women want most in the world in order to avoid execution. The knight receives an answer from a hag he meets in the forest, who provides him with the answer when they return to court. She informs him that what women want most in the world is to have agency over their husbands and lovers. The hag then asks for the knight's hand in marriage in exchange for her answer. The knight refuses adamantly but eventually the two are married. That night, the hag asks her husband if he would rather have a wife who was unattractive but loyal or beautiful but unfaithful. The knight says that a wife should be able to make her own decisions, and by saying this breaks the spell that was on the hag, transforming her into a beautiful maid. The story exhibits some typical elements of romance, a knight going on an adventure in service of a woman, but has comedic elements that seem to be influence by the Wife's character. The same could be said for the promotion of female agency and independence, which are highly valued by the Wife.