Wednesday, April 20, 2011

In "The Wife of Bath's Tale," how does the Wife feel about being married more than once?

I think it is quite clear from the Prologue of this
excellent tale that the Wife clearly sees no issues at all with being married so many
times. On the contrary, one of the reasons that she is going on the pilgrimage is to get
her sixth husband. She is certainly something of a coquette and a flirt, and is very
proud of her marriage history:


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For ever since I was twelve years of
age,


Thanks be to God, I've had no less than
five


Husbands at church door--if one may
believe


I could be wed so often
legally!



Not only does she
take pride in her history and make jokes about it, she then interprets the Bible to
support her position that marriage is good and we can remarry any amount of times we
want to:



All
my born days, I've never heard as yet


Of any given number
or limit,


However folk surmise or
interpret.


All I know for sure is, God has
plainly


Bidden us to increase and
multiply--


A noble text, and one I
understand!



The way in which
she focuses on parts of the Bible that support her position and conveniently ignores or
argues against those that refute what she believes clearly displays the way in which she
feels there is nothing wrong with remarriage. On the contrary, she uses her beauty and
confidence to make advantageous marriages to increase her wealth and social
status.

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