the wife of bath’s prologue section 2 -...

Investigate! The Wife of Bath’s Prologue Section 2

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Investigating l.453 'My

forthe housebonde' - l.502 'He is now in the grave'

Do you think that new aspects of the Wife’s character are revealed in this section?

Read the section out aloud from line 469 ‘But, Lord, Crist! ...’ to line 480. Try to identify for yourself

moments Where the lines flow

smoothly

Where you sense that a pause, a slowing down or a quietening of the voice is necessary to your reading.

How do The Wife’s expression of her

awareness of ageing The pause and flow of the

lines affect the ideas that you

may have formed so far of the Wife as ‘a verray jangleresse’ (l.638, a talkative, ranting, lying

woman)?

Investigating l.503 'Now of

my fifthe housebond' -

l.542 'Had told to me' As a way of examining the Wife’s

social networks and likely gossip,

construct an imaginary Facebook page for the Wife and her Facebook ‘friends’.

Investigating l.543 'And so

bifel' - l.584 'As wel of

this' Chaucer reveals the character of the

Wife through her account of her activities. Make a list of what the Wife

claims she does when her husband is in London Which of these activities

suggest that Chaucer’s

representation of her supports the misogynist view of women as not to be trusted to remain faithful?

Why is it ironic that she

launches into these activities during Lent?

Investigating l.585 'But now, sire' - l.626 'How

poore' Read l.587-626, thinking about

how Chaucer has handled this section. How much of the passage is

about the Wife’s fourth husband?

How much is self-advertisement?

How much is about Jankin? How do you interpret the word

‘hardinesse’ in the Wife’s claim to ‘sturdy hardinesse’ What effect does this have of

your view of her?

Investigating l.627 'What

sholde I seye' - l.665 'I

nolde noght' The comedy and humour in this

section work to lighten the tone of the Wife’s attack on authority.

You may think they reduce its force. What examples can you find of

incidents, rhyming, or situations which create comic effects?

Do you, for example, enjoy the comic effects of these interludes: Chaucer’s handling of the

pace of the narrative l.637 so that the marriage is announced as being celebrated within a month

of the Wife’s bereavement?


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The four line rhyming from l.655 which makes fun of the proverb?

Investigating l.666 'Now

wol I seye' - l.710 'That

women kan' Researching a misogynist text:

Choose any one of the ‘wicked wives’ texts that Jankin preaches from and search for it on the internet

Identify the aspects of it that you think would be anathema to the Wife.

Investigating l.711 'But

now to purpos' - l.771

'Somme han kem' In the midst of the Wife’s anger and

Jankin’s complaint, there is still comedy and humour Look for further examples of

incidents, rhyming or situations which create comic effects, for example: Socrates’ dryly humorous

response to receiving the contents of a chamber-pot l.733

The black humour of Arrrius’ comment that he would like a clipping of the tree on

which wives hang themselves, l.763.

Investigating l.772 'He spak moore' - l.828 'Now

wol I seye' Read

The opening of The General Prologue to The Canterbury Tales

l.45 of the Wife’s Prologue in which she seems to claim that she would welcome a sixth husband

The line near the end of her Prologue in which the Wife

seems to refer to Jankin as now dead

What connections can you make between these passages?

Investigating l.829 'The

frere lough' - l.856 'Yis dame, quod'

When you consider the content and characters involved in much of the Wife’s Prologue, to what

extent do you see Chaucer’s framing device of the pilgrimage as: Religious Subversively secular?

Think back on your reading work on the text as a whole and identify what you see as the major themes of the Wife’s Prologue Try to express these in a chart

or diagram showing where the themes reveal oppositions in the text .e.g. between:

Male and female Experience and authority Power and domination Pleasure and woe Liberty and constraint

Do you think that any of these oppositions are resolved or broken down by the end of the text?

Thinking about the shape and pattern of the Prologue, consider how you might express it diagrammatically on a large sheet of paper:

What will your diagram look like? You could use a time-line

on which you annotate the periods of the Wife’s life (the main movement is chronological)

You might use a large circle and show how the


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wife begins and ends with an attack on authority

Or …..? Enjoy experimenting. Annotate what you produce

with quotations, line numbers and drawings

You will find that you have to know the text well to do this

You may have to revise some of your first ideas about the way in which the narrative is structured

When you have done it, you will have a quick revision guide to the text. You can look at it and see immediately what events / ideas / images are in particular sections.

the wife of bath’s prologue section 2 -...

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