Textuality » 3A Interacting
Now I'm going to analyze the characterization of the Wife of Bath, who is an other character of the General Prologue of the Canterbury Tales and that represents the middle class.
The character is introduced with reference to her occupation and her home-town(first line).
In the third and fourth line the poet adds a piece of information about her occupation: "she skilled a clothmaker, that she outdistanced even the weavers of Ypres and Ghent", which were two important centres of Flemish weaving.
After that the poet tells the reader a little bit about her personality: she is vain, in fact she becomes furious if somebody dared to precede her at the almsgiving.
In addition the poet focuses the attention on her appearance: rich and tasteful, the Wife's clothes veer a bit toward extravagance: her face is wreathed in heavy cloth, her stockings are a fine scarlet color, symbol of her sex-appeal, and the leather on her shoes is soft, fresh, and brand new; all of which demonstrate how wealthy she has become.
Scarlet was a particularly costly dye, since it was made from individual red beetles found only in some parts of the world. The fact that she hails from Bath, a major English cloth-making town in the Middle Ages, is reflected in both her talent as a seamstress and her stylish garments.
The poet tells the reader also about her past: she has a lot of experience, she has travelled all over the world on pilgrimages, so Canterbury is a jaunt compared to other journeys she has endured. She has lived with five husbands, "not counting other loves, she'd had in youth".
In line 24 the poet wants to underline a particular aspect: "she as gap-teethed, if you take my meaning ". at that time teeth widely spaced were considered a sign of a lascivious nature; they also indicated that the owner would travel.
Chaucer describes her way to ride a horse and in the lasts lines he shows clearly and underlines one more time the sensual-love aspect of the Wife of Bath: "she knew all the cures for love, for at that game she was a past mistress."
In conclusion Chaucer makes up a characterization with mild irony of her overdressing, her extraordinary number of husbands, her moral behaviour which seems to contradict her respectability and her taking part in pilgrimages for a purpose which is probably anything but religious.