Character and Class in 'The Wife of Bath's Tale'
- Author / Editor
- Colmer, Dorothy.
Character and Class in 'The Wife of Bath's Tale'
- Published
- Journal of English and Germanic Philology 72 (1973): 329-39.
- Description
- Argues that the WBT is appropriate to the "Marcien" Wife, who represents a rising social class that challenges the "old courtly privilege." This class challenge parallels the Wife's sexual challenge, and her speech on "gentilesse"--a "complaint against domination by the upper classes"--reflects her views rather than those of Chaucer, who is "protected by irony."
- Chaucer Subjects
- Wife of Bath and Her Tale