Violence In The Wife Of Bath's Tale

The Wife of Bath believes very strongly that the woman should be in charge in a marriage, and that any violence against women should lead to shame from the man. Not only does she discuss such things in her prologue but her tale centers around the theme the violence against women is a terrible thing and any man that believes it not so deserves to be punished. The Wife of Bath does not condone any violent acts against women, though her tale shows she believes that a man who is violent can learn to become a good husband is he acknowledges that the women should have the power in the relationship.

Something that the Wife of Bath quite enjoys doing in order to attest to the fact that women should not be dominated by or held to a different standard than men is by using various Bible stories. The term ‘gloss’ is thrown around to discuss how she brings up such stores. The medieval meaning of gloss is different from the one today, as it means to interpret or define something, particularly in great depth. Hence, the Wife of Bath glosses over Bible stories in order to interpret and define them in a way that proves the point that she is making. She mainly utilizes

this technique to justify her five (hopefully to be six) husbands and to describe how silly the concept of virginity is, though in these arguments there is a glimpse into what she feels is the role a woman should have; that of having power over man. This viewpoint she holds helps to illuminate her overall opinions of violence (from men) directed at women. While speaking on the concept of virginity, the Wife of Bath makes the statement “myn housbonde shal have it [sex] bothe eve and morew, whan that hym list come forth and paye his dette” (152-53). Here it is clear that she believes that the man owes a debt to the woman, for she allowed him to marry her, and that she expects him to repay it. Several lines later she goes on to describe her husband as “bothe my dettour and my thral [slave]” (155), which clearly illustrates how she sees the relationship between man and woman. In her view, the man should be under complete control of the wife. This is important to keep in mind while discussing her views on violence, specifically that of violence from a husband directed at his wife.
The fifth husband the Wife of Bath had was named Jankyn, and while her favorite, she did consider him a ‘bad’ husband. While he was the only husband she claims to have married for “love, and no richesse” (526). After marriage, he would beat her incessantly, to the point of permanent injurty to her, as she states, “that feele I on my ribbes al by rewe” (506). The Wife of Bath eventually snapped under this treatment, which she accounts in detail. Jankyn would often preach to her this anti-feminist book that chronicled “wikked wyves” (685) and pretty much why women are terrible. Enraged that this is what her husband is reading, the Wife of Bath rips several pages out of this book. This leads to Jankyn hitting her quite hard hard against the side of her head, which led to the Wife becoming deaf in one ear. She claims the reason she ripped the page out was that “he nolde suffre nothyng of my list” (633), or, in other words, the he would not fulfill any of her desires. The way she speaks of this incident is is obvious that the men being violent towards women is something she will not stand for, as she is very heated and responds with violence of her own.
During this exchange, Jankyn hits the Wife of Bath so hard “that in the floor I lay as I were deed” (796), which frightened Jankyn into complacency.

This turn of events led to his realization that women were not to be treated with violence and held on a tight leash, but rather they were people and he should allow her to do as she wishes, as he says to her “do as thee lust the terme of al thy lyf” (820). Jankyn effectively puts the Wife of Bath back in control of her life and the marriage, which is exactly where the Wife of Bath wanted to be to begin with. The Wife of Bath effectively used a scare tactic in order to bend Jankyn into the man she wanted him to be all along. By frightening him into thinking he had killed her, she forced him to reevaluate his treatment of her, allowing her to regain independence from

him.
When moving into her tale, it becomes increasingly more obvious (if it were not already) that she has a very specific viewpoint on women, marriage, and the violence against them. That opinion is one that women should have the upper hand in marriage, and that any violence against them should be repent for by the man, that he should have some sort of backlash until he learned his lesson. In her tale, a knight of king Arthur’s court sees a woman walking alone in the woods, and “by verray force, he rafte hire maydenhed” (888). By law, he was condemned to death, however the queen has a different idea about what the knight’s punishment should be. She tells him “I grante thee lyf, if though kanst tellen me what thyng it is that wommen moost desiren” (904-5), if the knight is able to find what women most desire in the world, his life will be spared.
This task seems impossible since all women are people, so of course they desire different things. The queen knows this, of course, and that is why she assigns the knight this task. She is dealing with his violence in a way other then immediately condemning him to death. By giving the night this task, the queen is forcing him to talk to many different women, so that hopefully he will learn to see women as people; as three dimensional beings that have feelings and should not be taken advantage of in the woods. It can be assumed that the queen very well knows that the knight will be unable to find the answer and will be put to death anyways, but she wants him to understand that he has wronged the woman in the woods and that it is not an acceptable action.
On the last day of his quest, the knight meets a women, referred to as the “Loathly Lady”, who was “a fouler wight ther may no man devyse” (999). She claimed she could help him on his quest if he will promise to repay her. Desperate for his life, the knight agrees to this, and returns to Arthur’s court. Here he presents the answer to his quest to the queen, which exemplifies the Wife of Bath’s feelings on the role between man and woman, which is “wommen desiren to have sovereynette as wel over hir housbond as hir love, and for to been in maistrie hym above” (1039-40). This answer was correct, and the Loathly Lady collects on his promise; she wishes to marry him.
Of course the knight does not want to marry the Loathly Lady as she is old and ugly, but he made a promise, so he marries her. On their wedding night, the knight is extremely reluctant to have anything to do with her. Eventually she gives him an ultimatum, she may be beautiful and unfaithful or ugly and faithful. The knight contemplates for a bit, and finally responds with: “My lady, my lofe, and wyf so deere, I put me in youre wise governance; cheseth youreself which may be moost plesance and moost honour to yow and me also. I do no fors the wheither of the two, for as yow liketh, it suffiseth me” (1230-35). This led to her being both young a beautiful, since the knight had allowed her to be in complete control. The Loathly Lady utilizes a different tactic to deal with the violence presented towards her, in this case the knight outright telling her that she is ugly and he does not like her. She gives him two undesirable choices to see which he will choose, and by finally giving her the right to choose (i.e. the power in the relationship), the knight shows he has learned from his quest, and will leave his violent ways in the past.
It is clear that the Wife of Bath is not okay with any sort of violence against women, and she believes that the women should always have the upper hand in marriage. However, the way her tale ends leads to the conclusion that the Wife of Bath does not believe that one violent act towards a woman means that a man will forever be mean, violent, and a terrible husband, but that men can learn from their mistakes to become better people. This is also apparent though how even though she considered Jankyn a ‘bad’ husband, even though at the beginning of their marriage he would hit her, he remains her favorite husband. Overall, it is shown that the Wife of Bath has little tolerance at violence directed towards women, but she also understands that people have the ability to change and become better people.