February, 2014
The Economics of Sex in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale
Sex is one of the central themes of the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale. In these readings, the wife discusses sex as a way of obtaining her husbands’ wealth and land. In the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, the wife expertly explains how sex is used as fee in exchange for wealth, as sovereignty, and as power or “maistrie” in her marriages.
The Wife begins her prologue by talking about various marriages in the Bible. She uses this information as well as her own experiences to show that she could be considered an expert on the subject. She says “Experience, though it would be no authority in this world, would be quite sufficient for me, to speak of the woe that is in marriage; for, gentle people, since I was twelve years old--thank God, Who lives forever--I have had five husbands at the church-door (for I have been wedded so often); and all were worthy men in their ranks,” (Chaucer). These experiences give her much knowledge on the subject of marriage and how to use sex as a form of economic exchange.
In her prologue and tale, she gives a women’s perspective of marriage. She presents it as an economic exchange for wealth. Her descriptions of her first three marriages give a direct relationship between sex and money. She suggests that sex is a fee or payment in the marriages. She states that the sexual organs of men and women are to be used “for duty and for ease of procreation” (Chaucer). She mentions the 14th century notion of sex as a debt that the husband must pay to his wife. But in her own marriages, sex is no longer a debt her husbands must pay her, but a fee that she gives in exchange for their wealth and land. In her article entitled, “Wynne whoso may, for al is for to selle:” Sexual Economics and Female Authority in The Wife of Bath’s Prologue, Meghan Cole writes “The concepts of trade and exchange were nearly omnipresent in medieval society, and Alison’s successful entrepreneurial endeavors reflect similar opportunities granted by the constructed economics of sex” (Cole 33).
The Wife used sex as sovereignty over her husbands. She used her sexuality and expertise to gain dominion over her husbands and their money. She also used sex to control her husbands and make them subject to her. By giving and withholding sex, the Wife exercised authority over the men she married. Cole writes “By alternately exerting and retracting her sexuality she has attained complete control over her husbands’ wealth and properties” (33). The Wife suggests in her tale that what women ultimately want is to have “soveraynetee” or supreme dominion in marriage, although by her fifth marriage, “her concept of marital sovereignty progresses from financial profit, to physical domination, to trust, and finally, to equality” (40).
The Wife desires power or “maistrie” over her husbands. She states this emphatically in her prologue. She says “My husband shall have it both evening and morning, whenever it pleases him to come forth and pay his debt. I will not stop. I will have a husband who will be both my debtor and servant, and have his tribulation upon his flesh, while I am his wife. As long as I live I, and not he, have the power over his body” (Chaucer). She is successful at getting this power in all of her marriages. She says so in her prologue as well “And thus I boast of one thing for myself: in the end I had the better in every way, by cunning, or by force, or by some type of device, such as continual murmuring or grumbling” (Chaucer). Anne McTaggart, in her article “What Women Want” says that the Wife “sets out to make an example of herself” so that she can prove the “necessity of feminine ‘maistrie’” (McTaggart 42). To prove the necessity of feminine power, the Wife uses her own experiences as examples for other women to learn from and use.
In the end, the Wife’s use of her sexuality afforded her everything that she wanted in her marriages; wealth, sovereignty, and power. Her skilled and repeated use of her sexuality was successful, in her first three marriages, which she called good and in her last two marriages, which she called bad. The Wife learns and grows through each marriage, evolving into a woman that was an expert on marriage. Meghan Cole sums up the Wife’s quest for wealth, sovereignty, and power in her marriages.
“The evolution of the Wife’s perceptions of sovereignty delicately elucidates not only the elusivity of female power, but also the complex relationship between economic, physical, and social realities… legitimate female power results not from any singular dimension or aspect of authority, but from the adherence to any control gained through subjective action. A truly dynamic character, the Wife realizes this through her own experiences and from the fluctuations in levels and forms of power that she has achieved” (Cole 40).
Works Cited
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Wife of Bath's Tale - A Modern English Translation." EChaucer ¤ Chaucer in the Twenty-First Century. Trans. Gerard NeCastro. University of Maine at Machias, 2007. Web. 05 Feb. 2014. <http://machias.edu/faculty/necastro/chaucer/translation/ct/07wbt.html>.
Cole, Meghan. "“Wynne Whoso May, for Al Is for to Selle:” Sexual Economics and Female Authority in The Wife of Bath’s Prologue." Ecloga 7 (2009): 33-44. Ecloga 2009 Contents. The University of Strathclyde, 2009. Web. 04 Feb. 2014. <http://www.strath.ac.uk/ecloga/archive/2009/ecloga2009contents/>.
McTaggart, Anne. "What Women Want? Mimesis and Gender in Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale." Contagion: Journal of Violence, Mimesis & Culture 19 (2012): 41-68. Print.