The Wife of Bath's Prologue is a meticulously crafted and dramatically effective piece, and its structure is key to its power. The relationship with Jankyn, the fifth husband, forms the crucial climax and resolution of this intricate monologue.
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Structure of The Wife of Bath's Prologue
The Prologue, though appearing as a free-flowing, rambling confession, is actually organized with rhetorical precision, moving through a series of arguments and personal anecdotes that build to a dramatic peak.
1. Theological and Philosophical Justification (Lines 1-188)
Alisoun begins by immediately asserting her authority based on "experience", rather than traditional "auctoritee."
Defense of Multiple Marriages: She launches into a spirited defense of her five marriages, directly challenging the Church's idealization of virginity and celibacy. She uses selective biblical citations (Abraham, Jacob, Solomon) to argue that marriage and procreation are God-ordained and necessary.
Critique of Clerical Interpretations: She questions the singular focus of male theologians on virginity, highlighting a perceived hypocrisy or disconnect between learned doctrine and lived human reality.
2. Strategies for Marital "Maistrye" (Lines 189-452)
This section forms the core of her practical "advice" and recounts her successful tactics with her first three old, wealthy husbands.
Manipulation and Control: She explicitly describes her methods: feigning anger, making false accusations (e.g., accusing them of affairs), withholding sex, and generally tormenting them to gain control over their money and their wills.
Power Dynamics: She details how she made them "swinke" (work hard) and "swete" (sweat) for her pleasure and advantage, celebrating her ability to dominate.
Generalizations about Wives: She often shifts from personal anecdote to general pronouncements about how wives should behave or what they are capable of, reflecting the anti-feminist stereotypes but turning them into tools for female power.
3. The Fourth Husband: A Shift in Tone (Lines 453-487)
This section is relatively brief but marks a subtle change.
A "Revelour": She admits her fourth husband was a "revelour" and describes their relationship as more volatile, with her having a lover. This shows a less calculating, perhaps more passionate side to her, hinting at complexities beyond pure financial gain.
Grief and Guilt: She mentions a brief moment of genuine sorrow at his funeral, suggesting a flicker of emotional attachment, however fleeting.
4. Jankyn, The Fifth Husband: The Climax and Resolution (Lines 488-828)
This is the dramatic and psychological heart of the Prologue, culminating in the decisive battle for "sovereignty."
Jankyn, The Fifth Husband: The Battle for Sovereignty
Jankyn's relationship with Alisoun is distinct from her previous marriages and serves as the climactic struggle for "maistrye," which she ultimately achieves and then applies to the moral of her subsequent tale.
1. The Dynamic Shift
Youth and Poverty: Unlike her first three wealthy, older husbands, Jankyn is young, poor, and a clerk (a scholar). This immediately shifts the power dynamic; Alisoun is initially drawn to him not for money, but perhaps for his youth, intelligence, and even his defiance.
Intellectual Opposition: Jankyn represents the "auctoritee" that Alisoun despises. He reads from his "Book of Wicked Wives", a misogynistic compendium of classical and biblical stories about treacherous women. This is a direct attack on Alisoun's worldview and triggers the major conflict.
2. The Battle and the Injury
Verbal and Physical Conflict: Jankyn's constant reading from his book infuriates Alisoun. In a fit of rage, she tears three pages from the book and punches him in the face. This leads to him striking her back, causing her to fall and become partially deaf.
Feigned Death and Manipulation: Alisoun's cunning is never more apparent than after she is struck. She feigns death, then, as Jankyn expresses remorse and guilt, she seizes the opportunity to deliver a powerful blow, cementing his guilt and her victimhood.
3. The Resolution: Granting of "Maistrye"
The Turning Point: Overwhelmed by guilt and her dramatic performance, Jankyn finally burns his "Book of Wicked Wives" and grants Alisoun "al the sovereynetee" (all the sovereignty) over his land, his tongue, and his body. He fully yields to her will.
Paradoxical Love: Remarkably, Alisoun claims that after gaining this absolute control, she treated him well and they lived happily. She states, "After that day we hadden never debaat. / God helpe me so, I was to him as kinde / As any wife from Denmark unto Inde, / And also trewe, and so was he to me." This suggests that for Alisoun, true love and marital harmony could only exist once the struggle for dominance was resolved and she was the undisputed head of the household.
4. Connecting to the Tale
Jankyn's story is the culmination of Alisoun's personal journey to achieve "maistrye" in marriage. This victory directly informs the moral of her subsequent tale: the knight in her story only achieves true happiness and a beautiful wife once he yields "sovereignty" to his old, ugly wife. Thus, the personal experience of the Prologue directly reinforces the central theme of the Tale itself.
The structural movement from theoretical argument to personal history, culminating in the decisive victory over Jankyn, underscores Alisoun's overarching theme: that for a woman, true happiness and control in marriage come from achieving "maistrye."
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