Blooms Literary Themes - THE TRICKSTER.pdf - ymerleksi - home

“Th e Wife of Bath’s Tale” 237
connection, ironic or otherwise, to the authoritative epistles, including
those of St. Paul to the Corinthians, the Ephesians, and Timothy, that
the Wife of Bath argues against in the prologue to her tale.
After this transmission, the knight possesses and assumes responsibility
for the authority of the message. When he appears in the
court, he “stood nat stille as doth a best” [“stood not silent as does a
beast”] (1040) and, instead, addresses the queen “With manly voys”
[“With manly voice”] (1042). Th e adjective manly in this phrase
serves to develop the plot in a direct way and signifi es that he elevates
his voice so that he can be heard. Th e word also conveys an important
quality of the message he transmits. His manly authority gives
credence to the distasteful illogic of his message. Women, considered
inferior in religious teachings, classical philosophy, conceptions of
natural order, and the eyes of the law, “moste desyr” [“greatest desire”]
(1047) a masculine prerogative, namely “sovereyntee” [“sovereignty”]
(1044). Th e second part of the knight’s “quest,” a pilgrimage to the
“chirche door” [“church door”] (Prologue 462) not unlike the Wife’s,
forces him to internalize the message he has just validated. While
he has “tricked” the court through a skillful performance that earns
him his life, he only puts himself under the “wyse governance” [“wise
governance”] (1237) of his “humble wyf ” [“humble wife”] (1227)
when he realizes he has no other alternative.
Of course, his acceptance of her authority results in her bodily
transformation, a development that seems to signify a parallel metamorphosis
in the knight’s morals and ethics. When considered from
this perspective, the knight’s “manly” declaration of female authority
foreshadows the tale’s happy ending and, as a statement by a character
in a narrative, serves the purposes and goals surrounding the Wife of
Bath’s telling. Th e Wife creates an eff ective illusion only inasmuch as
her fellow pilgrims deem her tale “believable.”
While the pilgrims, and Chaucer’s courtly audience, may affi rm
the patriarchal authority of Janekin’s book of wicked wives, they also
value the Wife’s tale. Th e Friar, who follows the Wife in the Ellesmere
arrangement, tells her she “han seyd muche thing right wel” [“has said
many true things”] (Friar 1273). Th is apparent contradiction should
come as no surprise, however, as “romance stories, sketched briefl y as
exempla, could comfortably stand adjacent to rather than in opposition
to religious material” (qtd. in Allen 46). Th is characteristic of the
romance becomes even more important for the Wife, and women like