Parody in Chaucer's "wife of Bath"

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Chaucer defines her to object the authority by being

sarcastic about the whole thing.

Chaucer lets Wife of Bath talk about the authority in whatever way she likes .

In the text it can be marked out that she uses he “experience” to talk and complain about things, to mock and challenge the authority.

"Experience" she declares from the first "though noon auctoritee / Were in this world, is right ynogh for me / To speke of wo that is in mariage;" (III. 1-3)

She paraphrases St. Paul (2 Timothy 17-20) and misapplies his words with fine abandon to argue the case for those who would be less than perfect:

For wel ye knowe, a lord in his household, He nath nat every vessel al of gold; Somme been of tree, and doon hir lord servyse. God clepeth folk to hym in sondry wyse, And everich hath of God a propre yifte, Som this, som that, as hym liketh shift. (III. 99-104)

Surprisingly, she is aware of the anti-feminist text and literature and accusations against women in the holy books, from all biblical and other sources.

She describes her fourth husband's library:

He hadde a book that gladly, nyght and day, For his desport he wolde rede alway; He cleped it Valerie and Theofraste, At which book he lough alwey ful faste. And eek ther was sometyme a clerk at Rome, A cardinal, that highte Seint Jerome, That made a book agayn Jovinian; In which book eek ther was Tertulan, Crisippus, Trotula, and Helowys, That was abbesse nat fer fro Parys; And eek the Parables of Salomon, Ovides Art, and bookes many on, And alle thise were bounden in o volume. (III. 669-681)

Chaucer adds to the hilarity of the Wife quoting scriptures and texts like the authority and modifying to suit hand serve her interests. To let her talk about certain things in a way, and where some critics mark her as anti-feminist. Chaucer wanted her triumph over the authoritative class of that time,so he presented her in a way she wanted to , that is to talk about in any fashion as long as the purpose is served..

Letting a woman speak, that too an ignorant woman who is illiterate and does not know about the religious texts. Letting her do this adds to the narrative strategy Chaucer adopts.

She is the perfect person who can use the references used by the authority to mould them to convey her word and contradict them.

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