Questions About Marriage
1-Judging from her arguments, to whom is the Wife of
Bath's defense of marriage addressed? What might this audience have to say in
response to her arguments?
2-What arguments does the Wife make in support of
marriage? How do these compare with her personal reasons for marrying?
3-According to the Wife of Bath's Prologue, what are a
husband's obligations to his wife? A wife's obligations to her husband?
According to the Wife, has she fulfilled these obligations in her past
marriages? Why or why not?
4-What do you learn from the Wife of Bath's Prologue
about the arguments against marriage that were circulating during Chaucer's
time?
Questions About Sex
5-In what ways is sex linked to money (or material gain)
in the Wife of Bath's Prologue?
6-In what ways is sex linked to power in the Wife of
Bath's Prologue?
7-According to the Wife, what is the purpose of sex? Is
her use of sex consistent with this description?
8-What does the Wife take pleasure in besides sex?
What does this suggest about what makes sex pleasurable to her?
Questions About Women and Femininity
9-What are the antifeminist stereotypes of women that the
Wife conveys in her Prologue? What methods does she use to do so?
10-Does the Wife agree with the antifeminist stereotypes
about women? Does she confirm them? Why or why not?
11-What is the Wife of Bath's advice to wise women? What
does this advice suggest about her perspective on women and their status in
medieval society?
12-How does the Wife of Bath's character provide an
answer to the antifeminist stereotype of women as inherently less reasonable
than men? What is it?
Questions About Power
13-How does the Wife of Bath gain power in her
relationships? What tools does she use?
14-How is material wealth related to power in the Wife of
Bath's Prologue? How is sex related to power?
15-How does the Wife demonstrate her awareness of rhetorical
power, or the power of words? For what purpose does she employ this power with
her audience?
16-What do you think causes Jankyn's total submission to
the Wife? How does the Wife's means of gaining power in this episode compare
and contrast with the methods she uses with her first four husbands?
Questions About Wealth
17-What methods does the Wife of Bath
18-How does the Wife of Bath's desire for sex conflict
with her drive to obtain wealth? How does she reconcile these two drives, or
does she?
19-How might Jankyn's lack of wealth be related to how
differently the Wife gains power over him, in comparison with the methods she
uses in her first four relationships?
20-In what ways are women equated with wealth and
property in the Wife of Bath's Prologue?
Questions About Literature and Writing
21-How and where does the Wife employ textual
"auctoritees" (authorities) to make her points? On the other hand,
how does she undermine the authority of these auctoritees"?
22-Is the Wife of Bath
23-What is the significance of the Wife's treatment of
Jankyn's Book of Wicked Wives? How does this treatment compare to her treatment
of textual "auctoritees" in her Prologue?
Questions About Old Age
24-What does the Wife suggest are the main effects of old
age upon women? Upon men?
25-How does the Wife use her old age to build her
authority?
26-What kinds of images and metaphors does the Wife use
to speak about old age and aging? What does this language suggest about her
perception of old age?
Questions About Love
27-How is love linked with money and economics in the
Wife of Bath's Prologue? What is the effect of this connection on the Wife's
attitude toward love?
28-How does having money enable the Wife of Bath to find
love?
29-How does the Wife's treatment of love compare with her
treatment of sex?
30-How is love linked with power in the Wife of Bath's
Prologue?
General questions
- Does the Wife of
Bath seem more like a real person or a personification of stereotypes
about women?
- Does the Wife of
Bath's Prologue confirm or combat medieval antifeminism? Or does it do
both?
- Is the Wife of Bath
an effective rhetorician (debater)?
- Why does the Wife
spend more time talking about her relationship with her fifth husband than
any other?
