The Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath's Prologue Women and Femininity Quotes Page 2
Citations follow this format: (Line). We used the line numbering found on Librarius's online edition.
| Quote #4 A wys wyf, if that she can hir good, |
A wise wife will tell her husband that "the cow is wood," or the crow is crazy. This statement refers to stories common at this time period, of which Chaucer's "Manciple's Tale" is one, in which speaking birds tell a husband about his wife's unfaithfulness. The Wife is saying that it's in a woman's best interest that her husband never find out about her unfaithfulness.
| Quote #5 Thou seyst, som folk desiren us for richesse, |
The Wife's point here is that women are damned if they do and damned if they don't; no matter what a woman is or does, men will always view her as potentially desired by other men. The reference to a castle wall that men are trying to "keep" emphasizes the way in which men treat women as property.
| Quote #6 And if that she be foul, thou seist that she |
This statement continues the women-are-damned-if-they-do-damned-if-they-don't argument the Wife has just made with the notion that even ugly women are un-"keep"-able. It also continues the objectification of women by comparing a woman to a spaniel (a kind of dog).
