Lisa Bowles
Précis
The existence of the Wife of Bath as she appears in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is a reproduction of several textual predecessors including the Romance of the Rose, Walter Map, Jerome, and Ovid. However, the similarities between Chaucer's Wife of Bath and Uxor, Noah's wife in the mystery plays contemporary to Chaucer should be noted as well. The fortunate phenomenon occurs that while Chaucer uses several influences to shape the Wife of Bath, she emerges as a character all of her own right and influence, separate of those models who preceded her.
The similarities between Chaucer's Alison and Uxor begin with the place in antifeminist satirical tradition that the two have in common. Both are shrewd women, a trait found often in the tradition of the fabliaux, and both share the situation of being married to an aged husband. This similarity is notable, though it is more significant to comment on the undesirable status of the marriages rather than on the physical demographics. Both women have difficulty with their husbands in this manner. Both Uxor and Alison have a place in history and a story to tell because of their marriages, however. Both women are given to talk and gossip, and in doing so, they dominate through language. Both address the audience rather boldly, and are also characterized as gossips.
Both the Wife of Bath and Noah's Uxor love to walk and frequent the town. Neither, as shown by their jaunts, are given to obedience; Uxor will not get on the boat with Noah and Alison often argues with her husbands and counterparts over authority issues. Both women have the ability to strike both verbally and physically, revealing a spirit of independence as well as competitiveness. Storm similarly notes that the two women engage in "soul-battering, beguilement, physical combat, the coaxing out of secrets..." in ways that advance their causes of wifely sovereignty. Curiously, both women are weavers and enjoy the trade in all its worldliness.
One difference that Storm mentions concerns the endings to the two women's stories. Both end in harmony. However, Noah and Uxor are reconciled because she gives into obedience as a wife, re-establishing the natural hierarchy by God. On the other hand, Alison is reconciled to Janekyn through his obedience to her, re-establishing her idea of hierarchy and female dominance.
As Uxor is left with the rising waters of the flood, Alison is left in mid-journey. It is curious to think if Chaucer caused these similarities intentionally, although it is clear that Alison emerges as a strong character with her own effectual presence.