Julian, Margery & Chaucer’s Wife of Bath
If we look at a comparison and contrast of Julian of Norwich, Margery Kempe, and the Wife of Bath, we see that there are a host of differences and similarities among the three women. Perhaps the most notable distinction among the three is that the former two are actual personages from history while the Wife of Bath may be modeled on women Chaucer knew from the era but is nonetheless a character of fiction. Of course, after reading A Book of Showings and The Book of Margery Kempe, there may be some readers who argue that these two works are largely fiction as well. For both Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe were privy to divine insights and mystical visions directly manifested in them by God. However, we do see many similarities in them as well as the Wife of Bath. For example, both Julian of Norwich and Margery Kempe were religious pilgrims in their own right who traveled to holy lands and shrines just as the Wife of Bath is a member of a group of pilgrims making a holy pilgrimage to Canterbury.
If we look at similarities, we can see that Margery Kempe excised a good deal of control over her husband, after her fourteenth child she got him to agree to mutual vows of chastity. While vows of chastity may be the furthest thing from her mind, the Wife of Bath would enjoy seeing Margery of Kempe possessing some measure of sovereignty over her husband. The Wife of Bath is not necessarily a feminist any more than was Margery Kempe. Instead, she is a woman who is making the best of a situation she has been born into—a world typically defined and controlled by men. The tale she tells is meant to demonstrate this by the Knight who knows what answer will please the old hag when it comes to what women desire most, “’My liege lady, generally,’ quod he,/’Women desire to have sovereinetee/As wel over hir housbonde as hir love,/And for to been in maistrye him above./This is you
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