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A new social mobility was granted, and the “middle” or working class was created. Before this, women were ignored and often blamed for the plights of their society, and the new social mobility opened many new doors for women. Women, whom for years were starved for control and influence in their world, suddenly could exercise power over their husbands and other men. An example of these revolutionary women can be seen in Chaucer’s Alison, the Wife of Bath. The Wife of Bath, a character in The Canterbury Tales, is a lusty woman who desires nothing more than sovereignty over her husbands, and she says all women desire the same thing. In the beginning of the Middle Ages, women were labeled as a threat. Society considered all women “depraved and treacherous daughters of Eve” (Brault 41). The church published pamphlets like “Holy Maidenhood” explaining the benefits of becoming a nun. Women were told the only way they could be saved was virginity, to not give into Eve’s influence. But as soon as women recognized their new social mobility available to them, they quickly seized the chance to reign sovereign in their individual households. Women like the Wife of Bath, who were tired of being scared into virginity, began to “contradict many of the old oppressive customs and assert their own overbearing assessment of the roles of women in society and in relationships” (Blake). Alison sees no point in virginity because if “Lord God had commanded maidenhood, He’d have condemned all marriage as not good” (Chaucer 310). And in her five marriages, Alison, like other women of the time, insists she “have the power during all [her] life over his own good body, and not he” (Chaucer 415). The church played a large role in suppressing women. Interpretations of the story of Adam and Eve “tended towards an unfavorable view of woman” and these interpretations helped “the church men of the Middle Ages formulate their views” (Lucas 3). As the church developed, regulations regarding marriage under [...] under church law gave women a subservient place, overseen first by fathers or guardians and then by husbands” (Lucas 10). Women always had to be monitored for their behavior. But when women began taking the upper hand in their homes, they escaped the watchful eyes of their husbands and fathers, and realized how much they enjoyed sovereignty and freedom. According to the Wife of Bath, women “do love the best to be quite free to do [their] own behest” (Chaucer 429). Unfortunately for them, men did not have much say in this new domestic revolution. Regarding men, Alison simply states women “love no man that guards [them] or gives charge of where [they] go (Chaucer 321). In the Middle Ages, the church tried to campaign against marriage. The church leaders even devised stories of evil, abusive husbands, in hopes of driving young girls to become nuns. Chaucer had the Wife of Bath tell many of these horror stories, but the Wife of Bath told them quite fondly in regards to the relationship between herself and her husband, Jankyn (*http://www.virtual.park.uga.edu/cdesmet/wife.htm*). The church considered marriage “a righteous state and permissible, but less meritous than virginity” (Lucas 108). As a nun, women would have no opportunity for social mobility or sovereignty. This is what most church officials wanted for women, but it is not what women wanted for themselves. Alison, like most women of the time, enjoyed marriage, and considered herself lucky to “housbondes at chirche-dore she hadde fyve” (63). But what Alison enjoyed most in her marriage was “to have the sovereignty as well upon their husband as their love” (Chaucer 453). As the Middle Ages progressed, more and more women were escaping life as a nun. Marriage in the Middle Ages was simply for the benefit of the two families involved. In a marriage, a woman was actually considered a gift “given by one family to another for the mutual benefit of both houses” (Lucas 85). In the changing society, however, many women immediately tried to take the upper hand in their household. Some women, like the Wife of Bath, mocked and manipulated their husbands. Wives thought of their husbands as simple-minded, and easy to fool. This attitude was often seen in the marginalia illustrations of literature. For example, the woman may be depicted “wearing her consort’s pants and fighting for her right to appropriate them, whereas the husband, like a fool, will sit on eggs” (Verdier 123). Chaucer’s Alison heartily agrees with this attitude. When courting her fifth husband Jankyn, Alison lies to him and says she “made him think he had enchanted [her]; My mother taught me all that subtlety” (Chaucer 392). Once married to any of her five husbands she often refuse to pleasure her husbands in bed until “he had paid his ransom unto [her]” (Chaucer 378). Women like Alison looked down on men, and treated them like animals that were slaves to their instincts. In literature, women were often generalized and maligned. Some female writers, like Christine de Pizan, “defended [their] sex against the slander which characterized a whole section of medieval literature” (Willard 91). Women scholars like Christine de Pizan were rare, but the ones that did exist “were valued for their learning [...] and often became as revered as saints after their death” (Lucas 137). When women finally gained their limited social mobility, it was still difficult for them to enter the educated world. Older women, who were never educated before, did not know where to start learning. So many women, in an effort to be part of the educated world, “exercised their powers of patronage” (Lucas 170). The Wife of Bath was not a very educated woman, either, but she did have a method to channel her creativity. She was a weaver and “of clooth-making an haunt she passed hem of Ypres and of Gaunt” (Chaucer 450). However, Alison, like some women of the Middle Ages, somewhat resented clerks and scholars. For years scholars proved it was “impossible [...] that any cleric shall speak well of wives” (Chaucer 402). Many women, who were used to being vilified by scholars, did not want to involve themselves in a world they had learned to detest. Other women tried desperately to become writers, perhaps to fulfill Alison’s wish, to “write of men more wickedness than all the race of Adam could redress” and gain their female sovereignty in literature, too (Chaucer 408). The new middle class of the Middle Ages benefited all women. A woman born into poverty could one day have her own house. A woman born to a merchant could marry into a wealthy family. However, women like the Wife of Bath were not very interested in the actual social mobility. Most women were concerned with gaining sovereignty over their husbands and bettering their own lives because of it. Chaucer used Alison to illustrate a new and revolutionary kind of woman, a woman who was becoming more and more common in his time. It is said in The Wife of Bath’s Tale that all women desire nothing more than sovereignty over their husbands. The changing Middle Ages allowed women to achieve this sovereignty. Bibliography: Blake, J. “Struggle for Female Equality in ‘The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale.’” Johnathan Blake. 6 Nov 1998 Luminarium. 12 Dec 01 Brault, Gerard J. “Isolt and Guenevere.” Morewedge 41-64 Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. New York: Bantam Books, 1964. Harrison, G.B. ed. Major British Works. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanich, 1967. Lucas, Angela. Women in the Middle Ages: Religion, Marriage, and Letters. New York: St Martin’s Press, 1983. Morewedge, Rosemarie Thee ed. The Role of Woman in the Middle Ages. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1975 “The Wife of Bath and Holy Maidenhood.” The Wife of Bath. 9 Jan 1997. Harcourt Brace Jovanich. 2 Feb 2002. Verdier, Phillippe. “Woman in the Marginalia of Gothic Manuscripts.” Morewedge 121-160. Willard, Charit Cannon. “A Fifteenth Century View of Women’s Role in Medieval Society.” Morewedge 90-120. Word Count: 1222
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