The Canterbury Tales Group

Question:

sadegray
sadegray
Student
High School - 12th Grade

What is the Wife of Bath's occupation?

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Posted by sadegray on Monday November 2, 2009 at 5:08 PM and tagged with chaucer, the canterbury tales, the wife of bath.

Answers:

  1. kplhardison
    kplhardison Student
    Graduate School

    eNotes Editor

    As her title proclaims, The Wife of Bath was a wife. Along with this she is a maker of cloth, an adventursome traveler and a wealthy widow from having handled four out of five husbands well. There was much theological discussion in the latter half of the 14th century about the role and place of wives in a Catholic society. The doctrine was that wives were truly the daughters of Eve and, as such, were out to undermine their husbands in any way possible. In the Church's eyes (the Catholic Church was supreme at the time as the Protestant Reformation didn't occur until after Martin Luther posted his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517), wives could easily become "wicked women." Since the Wife of Bath (meaning she lived in Bath) has had five husbands, she perfectly fit the Church's definition of wicked woman.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/canterbury-tales-salem/canterbury-t...
    http://www.enotes.com/canterbury-tales-salem/canterbury-t...
    http://www.enotes.com/wife-baths-tale-salem/wife-baths-tale

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    Posted by kplhardison on Tuesday November 3, 2009 at 8:54 AM