A Pilgrimage is a journey to a sacred place that is either physical or spiritual, sometimes both. In Medieval English literature characters go on expeditions that often define their character. In The Canterbury Tales, the Wife of Bath transforms into the voice of reason and experience through obstacles and challenges that test the human condition in marriage. The conceptions that play out in her prologue and tale, this “travel” narrative, both literal and figurative are there to test the her character. In every work, the protagonist follows a path, both specific and unspecific, to improve their well-being. Moving from one place to another, either spiritually or physically, hints at a noticeable change for the person both internally and externally. In essence, the movement creates a path that the characters must follow in order to accomplish what they have been motivated toward. In due course, whether the change is expected or unexpected, the person reaches a point at which they change because of the knowledge they have gained from the experiences on the journey.
The Canterbury Tales is a set of stories recorded by Geoffrey Chaucer during an arranged pilgrimage to the tomb of Thomas a’Beckett, Bishop of Canterbury. There were to be a total of 120 stories in The Canterbury Tales; Chaucer only completed 22. Nevertheless the frame work he adopted for the stories was a plausible one. Moreover, by reporting the responses and relations that each tale evoked from all of the pilgrims, Chaucer added dramatic tension and even greater harmony to the assortment of tales. Chaucer was able to amass a diverse group of people from extensively divided social classes. This pilgrimage was an important one in the life of the church but also in the life of the sinner. The General Prologue is an introduction to the character; Chaucer is concerned with establishing the identity of each narrator. The pilgrimage begins in a little pub outside of London sometime in April when people are accustomed to taking trips of this sort. Chaucer feels obligated to tell the stories of each person truly. He feels that no one should be offended by language or content because he argues that the story-teller is telling the truth and is, in fact, confessing. In the case of the confession and the pilgrimage, The Wife of Bath tale stands out. Chaucer sets up an unusually long prologue in order for the audience to understand the impetus of her story. She is a powerful woman, who has been married five times, but her experiences within the marriages are more important than her authority; she has become anti-male. Her prologue and the tale are a combination of narration and confession. Since she has been married five times she no longer accepts male dominance over her, hence the premise of her tale. She is not apologetic for who she is; she is prepared to take communal authority over those who speak against her. Her sole purpose is sovereignty.
Her tale is a romance tale, but it is an unusual one. A boy has been charged with rape and will be put to death. The women of the court decide they were the only ones that had the right to pass judgment and punishment on this boy. So they take him to their own court where, as punishment, he must find out what women really want. For a year and a day he is allowed to wander trying to find the answer; if he is able to find out he will live, if he fails to do so he dies. He finally meets a woman so ugly he cannot ley his eyes upon her just as his time is running out. She proceeds to present him with a contract; she will tell him what all women want if he, in turn, agrees to marry her. She explains that women want sovereignty over men. She also reminds him that although he is noble he is not gentle in her sense of the word. She lectures to him about the importance of learning compassion, consideration and Christian love. The woman then presents the boy with another contract. The contract is such that she is to remain an old and ugly woman but remains faithful by his side or she becomes young, and the most beautiful woman but is unfaithful. He then leaves the decision up to her; she chooses beautiful but faithful because he was willing to sacrifice his own happiness and pleasure by learning from his mistakes. He goes back to the court a changed man, changed for the better because he was able to examine that which was essential and that which was not.
What the tale establishes is the conception that women are only truly able to exercise sovereignty through the scope of the man's allowance.
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