The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale

Ready to take your journey of Discovery? Renaissance: Journeys of Discovery at BRLSI is a year-long programme of talks and events exploring the many joys, discoveries and something of the broader cultural legacy of a movement still making waves in the 21st century.  Brunelleschi, Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Martin Luther, Cervantes, Shakespeare, Chaucer, Machiavelli, Hieronymus Bosch… if you love culture then you’ll love our new talks series!

This talk explores one of Chaucer’s most provocative and enduring characters: the Wife of Bath. It begins by examining her Prologue, the longest in The Canterbury Tales, where she asserts her authority through lived experience rather than religious or scholarly texts. With five marriages behind her, she challenges medieval norms around female sexuality, marriage, and biblical interpretation, using wit and rhetorical flair to defend her choices.

The talk then turns to her Tale, a reimagined Arthurian romance in which a disgraced knight must discover what women most desire. The answer—sovereignty over their own lives and relationships—mirrors the Wife’s own philosophy. The tale’s resolution, where the knight yields power to his wife and is rewarded, reinforces her argument that mutual respect and female agency lead to harmony.

Throughout, the talk highlights how Chaucer uses the Wife to satirise misogynistic traditions, while also giving voice to a complex, self-aware woman who defies easy categorisation. The session concludes by reflecting on the Wife’s legacy as a proto-feminist figure and her relevance in discussions of gender and power today.

Duncan McGibbon, BRLSI Poetry Convenor

To learn more about the Renaissance and our exciting year long programme, don’t forget to follow our Renaissance: Journeys of Discovery webpage: https://www.brlsi.org/renaissance/