Jason F. Moore
October 8, 1998
Chaucer's description the Wife of Bath's costumes provides interesting clues toward her social class and economic prosperity. The accessories of her Sunday attire demonstrate her pride in her material wealth, while her practical traveling outfit points to her plebeian origins.
Alisoun's Sunday clothing includes an elaborate headdress, expensive hosiery, and elegant shoes. The Wife's coverchiefs are evidence of her social status and her belief in St. Paul's dictum stating that women's heads should be covered in church. Economically, they represent the Wife's wealth and her community status. Morally, they announce her pride and materialism, and by extension her blatant sexual manipulation. Red hose usually were associated with the nobility and were a symbol of the upper class; the lower class usually did not were red hose because of its powerful symbolism.
The Wife's traveling attire is not nearly as ornamental as her churchgoing garb. Her practical hat displays her cosmopolitan experience while giving the reader a glimpse of her wayward nature. Wimples were practical for traveling because they protected the wearer from dust that was rising from the road. The wearing of a footmantle exemplifies the Wife's practicality because wearing one was considered extremely "common." There is no social pretense in the Wife's hat, wimple, and footmantle, only the necessities of an experienced traveler.