Extractions: by Ian Mackean Bookshop English Literature Geoffrey Chaucer York Notes ... GCSE Books Among the Pilgrims in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales The Wife of Bath is one of the most amusing and memorable. In her prologue she boasts of how she has had five husbands, over whom she has gained dominance, and the tale she tells, as well as the arguments she puts forward in her prologue, serve to reinforce in principle what she has achieved in practice. Chaucer had a remarkable gift, particularly considering the literary norms of the age in which he was writing, for creating life-like characters. When we read The Wife of Bath's Prologue we are given the impression of being spoken to by a real person. The Wife has a forceful personality with her own idiosyncrasies and prejudices, and the length of her prologue is in itself an indication of her egocentricity and love of gossip. Her prologue is a frank autobiographical confession, with which she entertains the other pilgrims on the journey to Canterbury, the actual arguments she puts forward being secondary to the revelation of her opinions and personal experience. If we look to her narrative for clear and logical reasoning we will be disappointed; we can, however, admire the skill with which she attempts to persuade the listeners with her own individual and forceful style of argument. The other pilgrims will be impressed by her as an entertaining orator, even if not as a philosopher, moralist, or theologian. We, and they, are also impressed by her frankness and honesty (at least, on this pilgrimage, even if not in her private life) and by the audacity and forthrightness of her character.
