Canterbury Tales Self Analysis

The True Self of The Wife of Bath

Identity has many sides to it. In private, people are allowed to conceptualize their own views, ideas and beliefs without the influence of outside opinions. In the public sphere, some may fear public scrutiny and in order to avoid that kind of situation, many people change their values and beliefs in order to fit in with the majority. However, if one feels strongly about their values and beliefs then they are more likely to stick with what they think is right even if it goes against what the majority believe in. In turn, the public sphere can provide a space for one’s private values to manifest themselves- allowing one to show their true self. In the Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer displays how one can develops their views through private experiences and how they display themselves in a public space. Chaucer does this through the character in the Wife of Bath, explaining her private

While Chaucer believes that people find a way of establishing their identity through public experiences and private experiences, you notice that The Wife of Bath’s private experiences never end up being private. This is because throughout the story she is constantly defying all social norms that were established in the 1400s. The Wife of Bath believes in the power one has over their body and over their emotions and constantly shows that in how she portrays marriage and sex. The Wife uses her power as a tool to control her husbands and when the marriage fails she simply moves on, claiming that the marriage no longer benefited her in any means possible. Now The Wife, in her attempt to use her intellectual power, often has errors in some of her logic, which results in her not fully having intellectual power. The constant need for power and authority over men, both sexually and intellectually, seem to be what drives this character to act the way she