There is a brief exchange between the friar
and the summoner near the end of "The Wife of Bath's ." Allison, the woman of Bath,
has just given a lengthy account of her experiences in marriage and talked about her five
husbands. Once she finishes, the friar points out that the prologue was "a long preamble of
a tale." The summoner responds by saying friars are always inserting themselves into
situations in which they are not wanted or do not belong. He states that "a friar will
evermore be meddling." The two get into a brief but angry conversation, and the summoner
threatens to tell negative stories about friars during the journey. The whole argument seems
unnecessary, but both feel insulted by the other and things escalate quickly. The host urges the
friar and summoner to stop fighting and let the woman of Bath tell her tale. The angry tone
between the two indicate that neither character has much patience with the other and that there
are stereotypes associated with friars.
Later, when Allison starts her tale,
she makes critical jokes about friars, implying that they have destroyed the magic of the world
around them and that they commit sexual assault. This is probably in return for the friar's
criticism of her prologue.
No comments:
Post a Comment