Chaucer Backs Himself Up (Two entries)

The Wife of Bath's Prologue 

'You also say that if we make ourselves attractive/ with fine clothing and adornments/ it imperils our chastity;/ and further-- sorrow take you-- you must back yourself up/ ... I won't conform to this text/ 
(lines 337-350; 326)

Everything about this line screams through the ages about women's self expression and the mental gymnastics men (and some women) have been doing to prove ownership and to place blame on women's bodies and clothing.

I don't owe them a word which has not been repaid. / I brought it about by my wit / (425-426)

"I brought it about by my wit" might be my new favorite line. Alisoun isn't shy about her ability to provide for herself. She is an alpha type who isn't afraid to take what she deserves, she uses all her gifts on her own terms to gain money and land; love isn't a game so much as a survival tactic to her self ownership.

The Wife of Bath's Tale

And some said that we love best / to be free, and do just as we please, / and to have no man reprove us for our vice, / but say that we are wise and not at all foolish. / (79-82)

This quote can relate to so many people, not just women. It encompasses the desire to just be accepted, to be recognized as a valid human with desires and passions. It asks to just be left alone to one's happiness. In a way this is a universal experience, we often hear about it in more adolescent terms of teenagers trying to assert their character and self-worth. We experience it in trying new hair styles or "Sticking it to the man"; we fight to fit in only to grow up and find tribes who fit who we are instead of us trying to fit into them.

What does this line and story say about Chaucer? If this story is based on his own remorse for raping a women does his story ask us for forgiveness? Is he attempting to show that he learned that women are their own entities and should be honored as such? Is he trying to say that a man can still be worthy of love if he can prove he has changed? The Wife Of Bath's Tale is written vastly different than others. The language is more beautiful, there is more attention to meter and specifically less attention to physical description of characters. Chaucer's voice through Alisoun is not necessarily idyllic instead, it is more mature and focuses on the nuance of emotion.