Prologue to The Wife of Baths Tale - Essay Example

The speaker reasons that the Scriptures talk about God’s command to “go forth and multiply” and that even great Old Testament figures, like Abraham, Jacob, and Solomon, enjoyed multiple wives at once.

The Wife of Bath admits that many great Fathers of the Church have proclaimed the importance of virginity, such as the Apostle Paul. However, she argues that even if virginity is important, there must be existing people who are procreating so that virgins can be created. Thus, she says that virginity should be left to the perfect so that the rest could use their gifts in the best way they could. Undoubtedly, her gift is her sexual power and she uses this power as an “instrument” to control her husband.

It is at this point, the Pardoner interrupts. The Pardoner is planning to marry soon and he is worried that his wife will control his body, in the same way, that the Wife of Bath describes. The Wife of Bath tells him to be patient and to listen to the whole story to see if it reveals the truth about marriage. Of her five husbands, three have been “good” and two have been “bad.” She further admits that the first three of her husbands were good because they were rich, old, and submissive.

She then laughs as she remembers the torments that she put her husband through and she even recounts a typical conversation that she had with her older husband. She then accused her husband of having an affair and launched into a litany in which she would charge him with a bewildering array of accusations. If one of her husbands got drunk, she would claim he said that every wife is out to destroy her husband. He would then feel guilty and give her what she wanted. In the end, the Wife of Bath says that these were all lies and that her husbands never held these opinions, but she made these claims to give them grief. What’s worse is that she would tease her husbands in bed, refusing to give them full satisfaction until they promised her money. She even admits proudly to using her verbal and sexual power to bring her husband to total submission.