Dame Alison and Her Husbands

306 Words2 Pages
Joshua Ashitey English 201 2/09/14 Dame Alison tells a story of her life as she marries different husbands. Throughout Chaucer’s the Wife of Bath Prologue, she mentions many times and gives reasons for the choices she makes in her life. She sees nothing wrong with her actions. The author gives an account of her lifestyle, explanation of her marriages and deeds in details. This is what makes me believe that the text is critical and wants to portray how such a woman tries to redeem herself by giving examples and justifications throughout the text. The text makes it seem like having more than three husbands is a crime. The prologue begins with Dame Alison justifying her actions early by making reference to Cane of Galilee. Also to defend her position, she refers to various people who had multiple wives. She state that King Solomon “hadde wives many oon.” She questions the bible and ask why women cannot marry more than one but men can have many wives. All she want to say is that if men are allowed to have many wives, women should be allowed to have many husbands. She says that Abraham and Jacob “each of hem hadde wives mo than two” (61-63). These examples she uses gives her a reason to state that she is justified in her five marriages. She is honest with her beliefs and ideas and is not afraid to speak her mind. She describes her first three husbands as “….goode and riche and olde” (203-204). She uses her sexual ability to gain possessions. By doing so, it causes the reader to judge her actions and think that they are actions driven by money and greed. It might be that this was the only way and method to gain something from men at that
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