Lesson video

Hello, and welcome to the seventh lesson about The Canterbury Tales: General Prologue.

My name is Miss King, and today we'll be learning about how Chaucer presents the character of The Wife of Bath.

For today's lesson, all you'll need is a pen and paper, or something to write on and with.

Please take a moment now to clear away any distractions, including turning off the notifications on any apps or conversations you have running, if you know how to.

Finally, if you can, try to find a quiet place where you won't be disturbed during the lesson.

Okay, so, when you're ready, let's begin.

First, let's recap what we learnt last lesson.

Pause the video now and see if you can fill in the gaps.

Resume the video once you're finished.

Well done.

Let's have a look at some answers.

You might like to correct any mistakes you made, and give yourself a big tick for the ones you got right.

So, when a man becomes a Friar, he vows to live in poverty, chastity, and to obediently follow God's law.

His duties are to help the poor and spread the word of God, as well as encouraging penance and hearing confession.

However, the Friar in The Canterbury Tales has clearly broken both of these vows.

Firstly, it's clear from the gifts he carries to seduce women, and the many marriages he's arranged, that he has had relationships with women outside of marriage.

Furthermore, he is corrupt, accepting gifts of money in return for God's forgiveness.

Now let's move on to today's lesson.

Today, we'll start by learning what the role of women was in the Middle Ages, before moving on to explore how Chaucer describes what the Wife of Bath looks like, and how her personality is described.

At the end, you'll have the opportunity to use what you've learnt today in an extended writing task, and of course a quiz.

First of all today then, what was the role of women in the Middle Ages? Most women in the Middle Ages had two options, to marry or become a nun.

These two roles are reflected in the two female characters from the Canterbury Tales, which we are focusing on, the Prioress and the Wife of Bath.

Now, if you married, your role would be domestic.

That means to do with running the home.

Your duties would include caring for children, preparing food and helping your husband with his work.

One of the main sources of ideas about women in the Middle Ages was the Bible.

As we've explored previously, the church was hugely powerful at the time, and stories from the Bible would have been familiar to most people.

The first woman to exist, according to the Bible, was Eve, the wife of Adam in the Garden of Eden.

Eve gave in to temptation, when the devil, disguised as a snake, suggested that she try eating an apple from the Tree of Knowledge, which God had forbidden Adam and Eve to do.

She then tempted Adam to do the same.

This is sometimes known as the Original or First Sin.

Eve's actions caused the downfall of mankind.

As God was so disappointed that he cast them both out of the Garden of Eden, and cursed humanity forever afterwards.

The character of Eve led to the idea in the Middle Ages that women were morally weak and inferior to men.

Another idea about women in the Middle Ages, again from the Bible, was based on the character of the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus.

According to the Bible, Mary was a virgin, a chaste woman who had not yet had a relationship with a man.

When she was told by an angel that she would give birth to Jesus, the son of God, she obediently followed God's wishes, and cared for the baby Jesus when he was born.

Mary was seen as the domestic ideal of a woman, chaste, obedient and a caring mother.

However, this ideal wasn't possible for women in the Middle Ages to achieve.

They couldn't be both chaste and a mother.

Either they remained chaste and became a nun, or they chose to marry and have children.

Now, while most women had very little control over their lives, it's true that some women had power in the Middle Ages.

For example, Queens or Prioresses who were in charge of running a convent.

But this was not the case for the majority.

Let's see if you're following so far.

Which two options did most women have in the Middle Ages? The answer is to become a nun or to marry.

Okay.

Which two figures from the Bible inspired ideas about women in the Middle Ages? The two women who inspired ideas about women in the Middle Ages were Eve the first woman, and the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus.

So how does the Wife of Bath fit into all this? Well, she was a woman who was married five times.

And remember she is of Bath, not because she likes chilling out in the tub, but because she comes from a town in Somerset, known as Bath.

Let's find out what the Wife of Bath looks like.

First up, Chaucer tells us that she had a red face and red trousers.

Her hose were of the finest scarlet red, and gartered tight, her shoes were soft and new.

Bold was her face, handsome and red in hue.

So hose are trousers.

Bold means confident and hue is a colour.

Let's have a think about why Chaucer focuses on the colour red when describing the Wife of Bath, What might the connotations of red be? Connotations are the ideas and feelings associated with a word.

So for example, the connotations of summer are things like sunshine, beaches, and happiness.

Pause the video for a moment now, and see if you can write down the definition of connotations.

Resume the video again once you're finished.

How did you get on? Connotations are the ideas and feelings associated with a word.

So now we know what connotations are, but what are the connotations of this colour red, which Chaucer uses when describing the Wife of Bath? Well, we tend to associate the colour red with ideas like love and passion, and linking to this, temptation like that experienced by Eve.

As red is a bright colour, which catches our attention, it can also be used on signs or warnings, and another idea linked to the colour red is that of anger.

So knowing what we do now about the connotations of the colour red, what might this quotation suggest about the Wife of Bath? Hmm.

Pause the video now to write down your ideas.

Here's what you might have written.

Red is a bright colour, which attracts attention, suggesting that the Wife of Bath is a big character who demands attention.

It also has connotations of love and passion, suggesting the Wife of Bath's skills in the art of love.

It is sometimes associated with temptation, and therefore links the Wife of Bath to Eve.

Finally, red can also be associated with anger.

This might suggest that the Wife of Bath is short tempered.

Let's find out what else Chaucer tells us about the Wife of Bath's physical appearance.

She's well-dressed.

He writes that she had gap-teeth set widely, truth to say.

Easily on an ambling horse she sat, well wimpled up, and on her head a hat as broad as is a buckler or a shield.

Okay, so a wimple is a fabric head-dress.

A buckler is a small round shield.

Notice how large and showy her hat is.

She does have a gap between her front teeth, but actually this was considered attractive in the Middle Ages.

Lastly, we learned that the Wife of Bath is a large woman.

She had a flowing mantle that concealed large hips, her heels spurred sharply under that.

So this, in combination with her good quality clothes might suggest that she is wealthy, because it suggests that she can afford to eat plenty of food.

Okay.

Let's check your understanding.

Which of these statements is not true of the Wife of Bath? The statement which is not true is that she is a small woman.

Chaucer tells us that she is large.

Now we've got a clear idea of what the Wife of Bath looks like.

I'd like you to try drawing a picture of her, including these details.

So, she is a large woman.

She wears red trousers.

She has a bold, handsome red face, and a gap between her teeth.

She's wearing a wimple, that's a head-dress, a large hat and a mantle, a cloak.

Pause the video now to complete your task and resume it again once you're finished.

Great work.

Have a look at these depictions of her.

Does your drawing look anything like these? So in this picture, on the left, you can see the Wife of Bath's large hat and her wimple, her head-dress, as well as her long flowing mantle.

That's her cloak.

And in this one on the right, you can see her jolly confident face and the red clothing that Chaucer that describes her wearing.

Okay, so we know what she looks like.

Now let's find out how her personality is described.

So Chaucer tells us that the Wife of Bath is very talented at making cloth, fabric, which we assume was probably her last husband's business.

Chaucer writes, In making cloth she showed so great a bent, she bettered those of Ypres and of Ghent.

Now bent means a natural talent in this context, and Ypres and Ghent are both towns in Belgium, which were very well known for producing cloth in the Middle Ages.

So the Wife of Bath is so good at making cloth, she's even better than people in places which are famous for doing it.

On a less positive note, Chaucer also presents the Wife of Bath as a proud woman.

He writes, In all the parish, not a dame dared stir towards the altar steps in front of her, and indeed if they did, so wrath was she as to be quite put out of charity.

Right, so, before we can explore why this suggests that the Wife of Bath is proud, we need to make sure we understand some of the trickier vocabulary that Chaucer has used here.

So a parish is an area governed by a church, and a dame means a woman.

The altar referred to here is a table in a church where bread and wine is given during the Communion service.

And finally wrath means anger or angry.

So what Chaucer is telling us here is that when the Wife of Bath goes to church, as most people in the Middle Ages would have done, she expects to be allowed to go to the altar first, and if any woman dares go in front of her, she gets very angry.

This shows us she's extremely proud, and very sure of her own importance.

Chaucer also lets the reader know that the Wife of Bath has had lots of romantic relationships.

She'd had five husbands all at the church door, apart from other company in youth.

No need to speak of that just now, forsooth.

So she's had five husbands, and boyfriends before that when she was a young woman.

Although Chaucer says there's no need to go into detail, suggesting that maybe there's quite a few of these boyfriends.

So based on what we've learnt so far, which word best describes the Wife of Bath? The answer was proud.

Okay, something else Chaucer tells us about the Wife of Bath is that she has been on pilgrimage to many places, and thrice she had been to Jerusalem.

She had seen many strange rivers and passed over them.

She'd been to Rome and also to Boulogne, Saint James of Compostella and Cologne, and she was skilled in wandering, by the way.

And finally we learn that the Wife of Bath liked having a good time.

In company, she liked to laugh and chat.

Well, who doesn't? Okay, so, which of these things does the Wife of Bath not enjoy doing? The answer was being quiet.

From her bold red clothing and large figure, to her many boyfriends and chatty personality, Chaucer certainly presents the Wife of Bath as a loud woman.

So, now we've explored the Wife of Bath in detail.

Perhaps we should ask ourself wherever she is a negative stereotype of a woman.

There were plenty of those around in the Middle Ages.

The stereotype, as we learnt in lesson six is a common, but fixed and oversimplified idea of a particular type of person.

So, what are the negative things Chaucer tells us about her? Well, she's short tempered.

Remember how angry she gets, if anyone jumps in front of her in the queue for Communion.

This also shows us that she is proud, and not in a good way, in a way that suggests she is too full of her own importance.

Chaucer's comments on her love life also suggest that she is lustful, that she really likes men and tempts them a bit like Eve.

However, Chaucer also tells us lots of positive things about her.

The Wife of Bath is clearly a confident woman, and an attractive one.

Having large hips and a gap between your teeth was desirable then.

He also tells us that she is very talented at making cloth, and her good quality clothing suggests that this talent has led to her becoming financially successful.

People are divided over whether the Wife of Bath is a positive or negative portrayal of a woman.

I'll leave you to make up your own mind.

Now let's see if we can put all of our ideas about the Wife of Bath together into a piece of writing.

I'd like you to answer this question, how does Chaucer present the Wife of Bath? Make sure that you include both how her appearance is described, and how her personality is described.

Give relevant quotations from the text.

That's the words Chaucer used, to support your ideas and clearly explain what these suggest.

If you can, try to link to context, how does the way that the Wife of Bath is described linked to ideas about women in the Middle Ages? If you like, you can use these sentence openings to help you structure your answer.

Pause the video now to complete your task, and resume it again once you're finished.

Well done.

Let's have a look at what you might have written.

You might have phrased your answers a bit differently to mine.

That's okay.

The thing to look out for when checking your own work are that you've given some relevant quotations to support your ideas, clearly explained what they suggest, and linked to historical context.

So here's what an acceptable answer might look like, Chaucer describes the Wife of Bath as a large woman who is well dressed.

For example, "She had a flowing mantle that concealed large hips." This tells us that she is successful because she's able to eat plenty and buy expensive clothing.

Chaucer describes the Wife of Bath's personality as loud and confident.

For example, "In company, she likes to laugh and chat." This tells us that she is loud and confident, because she's not afraid to talk to the other pilgrims. Okay.

And here's what a really good answer would look like, Chaucer describes the Wife of Bath as having a red face and red trousers.

For example, "Her hose were of the finest scarlet red, bold was her face, handsome and red in hue." This might suggest that she's a big character who demands a lot of attention, as red is a bright colour.

The colour red also has connotations of love and passion, suggesting the Wife of Bath's skills in the art of love.

It is sometimes associated with temptation, and therefore links the Wife of Bath to Eve.

In the Middle Ages, it was believed that women were morally weak, and would give in to temptation more easily.

Chaucer describes the Wife of Bath's personality as being a proud woman.

For example, "not a dame dared stir towards the altar steps in front of her." This suggests that she is proud, that she expects to be allowed to go to the altar first, showing her sense of her own importance.

However, Chaucer tells us she becomes full of wrath, anger, if she doesn't get her way, suggesting she's arrogant, and lets her emotions control her.

In the Middle Ages, a woman was considered inferior to a man.

So a woman who always has to have her way, like the Wife of Bath, may have been looked down upon.

Notice how much more detailed the explanations are in the good answer, and how it links the Wife of Bath to ideas about women in the Middle Ages context.

Okay.

That brings us to the end of today's lesson.

I'd like to say a huge well done for all your hard work today.

Good job.

Now, before you go, I've got two final things I'd like you to do.

First.

Don't forget to complete the quiz.

Secondly, if you're able to, please take a picture of your work, and ask your parent or carer to share it with your teacher, so they can see all the fantastic things you've learned today.

Well, all that's left for me to say is thank you.

Take care and enjoy the rest of your learning for today.