Dream Lover
(The Wyfe Of Bath's Prologue)
Prologue:
Before starting her tale, Alisoun, the Wyfe of Bath, tells the other pilgrims a little about herself, focusing mainly on her religious opinions and her total mastery over the five husbands she has outlived.
During the pilgrimage, she lets it be known that she wouldn't mind another husband... as long as he knows who is in charge.
In The Picture:
The Wyfe of Bath dreams of her next husband.
Behind the picture:
In the middle ages, second marriages for women were frowned upon, so the Wyfe of Bath is an astonishing character having already buried five husbands. Not only that, she is scripturally well informed... highly unusual for the time as the church was extremely powerful and promoted the view that women were inferior to men and too dim-witted to be anything more than illiterate, sexually unrestrained and bad-tempered.
Symbolism:
The Wyfe dreams of her knight in shining armour... note that he wears Suffragette colours and carries a Suffragette emblem. Look closely and you will see that the pennants on his finery are household gloves and his steed is actually a sea horse... creatures well known for the fact that the males incubate and birth the young.
Three monkeys (symbolic of fleshly pleasures) can be seen with the Wyfe, but being a moral woman who always married her man, Alisoun's monkeys are all restrained (though eager to take a look).
A black widow spider can be seen catching and devouring her prey while a "mother-in-law's tongue" cactus stands near a shell (a reminder of the Wyfe's pilgrimage) as an hour-glass drips potential suitors in a reminder that time waits for no-one.
The Wyfe's five dead husbands can be seen in the form of dogs, but note the hyena... a species famous for female dominance. She stands on a laurel wreath wrapped around a philosopher's book... a reference to a younger husband who almost got the better of Alisoun but quickly realised his mistake and died soon after.
Husband number four, the pink poodle puffing away at a bubble-pipe made from a pitcher plant, also serves as an allusion to the relaxation of church law regarding female priests and homosexuality in modern times...
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