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This 3 page paper discusses the correlation between the Wife of Bath's prologue and the actual tale. Bibliography lists 1 source.
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3 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_MBbathprol.rtf
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tale by another pilgrim on the road to Canterbury, which is often prefaced by a prologue. The chapter in which the Wife of Bath tells her tale, is loaded with
innuendo which was notable during Chaucers age, and is, ironically, still applicable to today. Likewise, the prologue echoes the tone and flavor of the tale, exampling the symbiotic relationship that
the prologue has to the story. The Chaucer Review, author, Barbara Gottfried, states, in reference to the Wife of Baths tale (prologue) that this introduction to the tale comprehends the
transmutative power of the Wife of Baths prologue, and the veiled yet crucial fact of the ambivalence of her feelings about love, marriage, husbands, the images of women she confronts,
and the most deep rooted valued of the society in which she lives"(Gottfried, 202). The first point of comparison between the prologue and the tale is that the Wife of
Bath is responding to a debate that had been going on for centuries regarding the place of women in the universe and society. She reiterates this same theme and message
in her tale. "The clergy she criticizes focused on the subordinate place of women in society. Biblical precedents on remarriage, sexual gratification, celibacy, and adherence to the perfect state of
virginity"(Gottfried, 205). Many times what the Wife says is in direct opposition to what the reader/listener knows that the Wife believes. This occurs in both the prologue and the tale.
What is most interesting about the prologue for this tale is that it is longer than the tale, itself. Therefore, the actual tale, it might be argued, IS the prologue.
Within it one can find plot, theme, tone and characterization similar to that which one finds in the tale. The last part of the prologue finds the Wife speaking about
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