Identity

In our discussion of the WoB Tuesday and all the posts regarding her tale, there has been much talk about how she uses scripture and the story of King Midas. I have been thinking about these issues since I read the tale over the weekend, but it wasn't until today that I could pose my question properly.

While doing research for another course, I have been reading a lot about memory, myth, politics, culture, and identity. The relationship between memory (individual and collective) or history and identity stood out in reference to the WoB. As Andrew pointed out in his post "The Other Half," the Wife of Bath tends to only draw what she deems necessary from scripture in order to prove her point. We also discussed her manipulation of the Midas myth in order to prove a point about wives in general, at least that's how I see it now.

Allan Megill, an intellectual historian, sees memory as something that "haunts history" (193). He states, "the Halbwachsian model holds that memory is determined by identity...His account of historical memory deals with how an identity, whose integrity at a certain moment is assumed, goes about inventing a past congruent with that identity..." (Megill 194-95). I found this particularly interesting in relation to the WoB because she seems to be doing the same thing with scripture and mythology. Simply, she is "manipulating," for lack of a better term, what she needs in order to suit her identity, or at least the identity Chaucer associates with her. She is a woman who appears to desire complete control in marriage as evident in her prologue. Chaucer has her quoting just what she needs from scripture in order to help form this identity. Only the necessary elements of scripture are used to help form her identity, something we might see akin to selective reading today.

When it comes to the Midas myth, it appears that Chaucer has the WoB doing the same thing yet again. Chaucer changes details of the myth to make the wife appear as the culprit. This change helps form identity in a couple of ways. First, it paints women in a slightly flawed state, but, more importantly, it goes to reinforce the theme of women in control. Midas' wife was the only one who could have outed him. Of all the people he could have had cutting his hair and trust with his secret, he chose his wife. I am thinking that this is just another example of how Chaucer is using myth or history, depending on how you look at it, as a means to help build a solid identity for the WoB. (I could expand on this more, but I think I might save that for my close reading paper!)

In relation to the WoB and the Tale, and any other character and tale for that matter, the tales could serve as "memory," helping to form the identity of the characters. Imagination, for some philosophers, is a part of memory. The tales themselves serve as a type of artificial memory used to build the identities and personalities of the characters in the CT. Just as an example, take a look at Custaunce. We see her identified with certain biblical characters throughout "The Man of Law's Tale." Those associations with other figures helps to form her identity in the tale.

This may be rather confusing for some people, and it is still a bit confusing in my head. However, I thought this might be an interesting take on the WoB and all the other characters and tales. If you can manage for follow my crazy train of thought, please let me know what you think.

Works Cited:

Megill, Allan. from "History, Memory, and Identity." The Collective Memory Reader. Editors Jeffery            K. Olick, Vered Vinitzky-Seroussi and Daniel Levy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011. 193-97.    Print.