About Me...



http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/sechard/WIFE.HTM



I play a huge role in the way that the cultures influence my story.   I am one of the most famous women in English Canterbury Tales.  I am somewhat deaf, have a bold face, a handsome red hew, gap teeth and large hips. I am a very friendly lady even though she might look a little weird.   I also know a good bit about traveling. I present myself as the authority on marriage and marital life. I comment on the social and legal position of women in marriage and daily life. I have knowledge from experience, not from scriptural authority. Rather than rejecting the bible sayings, I am famous for my skill in making fine cloth.  I am a very complex character. At first you think that I'm just a woman who has been around the block, because I'm described as that in the prologue, "I have had five husbands at the church door, aside from other company in youth..." Women had a different role during this time period. However, I explain myself in my own prologue. I state many ideas and customs of that time and tell how I will not follow them, "I won't conform to this text and rubric one gnat's worth!" The culture of women is shown throughout my story.

Here and There

For a Medieval woman I am a remarkably well traveler.  I have took three trips to Jerusalem as well as one to Rome, one to Bologna, one to the shrine of St. James at Compostella, and one to Cologne, where the Three Magi were especially venerated.  Like i have stated once before while on one of my trips I lost a husband.

Five Husbands

My first three husbands were bad.  I don't really have much to say about the three of them because I was young and really didnt know what I was getting myself into.  Then I married my fourth husband while still young, he was a reveler.  Remembering my wild youth I became wistful and describe the dancing and singing me and my fourth husband did while together. When my fourth husband cheated on me, I got revenge by flirting with other men and making him husband extremely jealous.  My fourth husband passed away on my pilgrimage to Jerusalem.  At the funeral I put on a show crying, even though I already had another husband lined up.  As I watched Jankyn carry my husband’s casket, I fell in love with him. He was only twenty and she forty, but I was always a lusty woman and thought I could handle his youth. But, I came to regret the age difference, because I would not suffer the abuse like her past husbands and gave some of his own abuse in return. When I first met my fifth husband, Jankyn, I was still married to the fourth.  While I was out with him one day told him I would marry him if he was widowed.  Jankyn and I also had disputes of our own.  We fought one night and he hit me so hard I became deaf in one ear.  He has the greatest body, so I was ready to forgive him to some degree. But when once he hit me, I pretend to be dead. This scared him husband so much that after this accident I got sovereignty in our relationship.  However, my fifth husband was my love; Even though he treated me horrible and beat me every chance he had.  This husband was different from the other four because I married him for love, not the money.