Consider the Relationship Between Experience and Authority in the Wife of Bath's Prologue (Geoffrey Chaucer: The Canterbury Tales: The Wife of Bath's Prologue)

The Wife of Bath is commonly recognised to be set distinctly aside from the other pilgrims due to her extended autobiographical monologue that precedes her tale#. Her Prologue is the longest allotted to any of the pilgrims and is almost as long as the General Prologue itself. In the Wife of Bath's Prologue Chaucer has often been praised for painting his most vivid picture of a character and their idiosyncrasies, giving readers a real insight …

…Chaucer's Poetry (London: Indiana University Press, 1976), particularly Chapter IX.: 'Experience and Authority in the Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale', pp. 135-159 Evans, Ruth, and Johnson, Lesley (ed.), Feminist Readings in Middle English Literature: the Wife of Bath and All Her Sect (London: Routledge, 1994) Muscantine, Charles, Chaucer and the French Tradition (Berkeley: University of Calafornia Press, 1957) Pearsall, Derek, The Canterbury Tales (London: Routledge, 1985) Traversi, Derek, The Canterbury Tales: A Reading (London: The Bodley Head Ltd, 1983)