Chaucer's Wyf of Bath
Elaine Tuttle Hansen: Deconstruction and Contradictions
In the second part of Hansen's essay, "Of his love daungerous to me: Liberation, Subversion, and Domestic Violence in the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale"entitled "Domestic Violence. Rape, and (Happy?) Endings," she states, the Wife's Prologue and Tale "clearly help us think about femininity as something created by men and their words, oral and written- and therefore subject to change, since language is a constantly evolving system- it serves certain feminist purposes well" (Hansen 276).
However, Hansen then cautions the reader against this kind of reading due to problems in seeing the Wife as a feminist in the present-day interpretation of the work and Chaucer's sexual politics. Hansen evaluates the Wife's "liberated" attitude toward sexuality, and in doing so, seems to lean towards a deconstructionist view.
Deconstructionist Point of View
This deconstructionist view surfaces when she likens the "bacon" in line 418 to a penis. This statement is a little far-fetched but is easily passed over so the reader can move on to the more valid points. In lines 416-418, the Wife states,
"For winning wolde I all this endure
And make me a feyned appetit.
And yet in bacon hadde I never delit"
(ln.416-418).
This passage is describing a sexual encounter in which she faked an orgasm. Hansen suggests it is doubtful the wife enjoyed sex without being under the influence.
Contradictions in the Wife's Tale
An interesting perception by Hansen is the connection between the tale and the relationship between Jankyn and Alisoun. Just as the old woman gives in and transforms herself into what the knight has always wanted in a woman, Alisoun also gives in and becomes a submissive wife to Jankyn, even after he has beaten her.
According to Hansen, "the fact that the wife turns around and curses men who will not be 'governed by hir wives' (ln.1262) could suggest that she has not been fooled by her own fairy tales into believing that husbands will so easily accept the lesson, contradictory as it is, that she claims to want to teach" (Hansen 281).
Furthermore, Hansen incorporates an Aesop's fable into her third part of the essay titled "Who Painted the Lion?" Her explanation of this section is wonderful and makes the Wife's passage below all the more clear:
"Who peyntede the leon, tel me who?
By God, if women hadde writen stories,
As clerkes han withinne hir oratories,
They wolde han writen of men moore wikkednesse
Than all the mark of Adam may redresse"
(ln.692-696).
Hansen claims the previous passage speaks of Chaucer himself. She states, "Chaucer was at least sensitive, if not openly opposed, to the ways in which women are oppressed by the dominant authorities and cultural conventions of his day" (Hansen 283). She claims the Wife of Bath should be looked as an analysis of anti-feminism in her age.
Comparison to Chaucer?
Hansen goes even further to compare the Wife of Bath to Chaucer. She makes several connections between them such as their "love of speaking and their fluency with words"(Hansen 285). This may be true but several distinctions make it very hard for the reader to go along with this statement.
First, Chaucer is a man. Secondly, the Wife of Bath is a fictional character created by Chaucer: a dynamic woman, who through her interesting conversation paints a picture of a strong-willed female who recognizes her faults, but nevertheless is certain of what she desires. Although certain character traits may exempt her from being what we consider the perfect feminist hero; she was definitely a woman ahead of her time, which demands interest.
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. 1996. "Of His Love Daungerous To Me: Liberation, Subversion,
and Domestic Violence in the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale." The Wife of Bath. Ed. Peter G. Beidler. New York: St Martin's Press, 273-89.
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