Old Beliefs or New Beliefs?

In the prologue of "The Wife of Bath," the wife questions her beliefs to those of others. The wife has been married to five different men, and it has been brought to her attention how this could be seen as a bad thing. She is now questioning whether this is wrong or okay.

In that time period, it is not sure what was accepted or not accepted when it came to marriages, for it does not say so in the book, but it does state "That sith that Crist ne wente never but onisTo wedding in the Cane of Galilee,That by the same ensample taughte he meThat I ne sholde wedded be but ones.Herke eek, lo! which a sharp word for the nonesBesyde a welle Iesus, God and man,

Spak in repreve of the Samaritan:“Thou hast y-had fyve housbondes,” quod he,“And thilke man, the which that hath now theeIs noght thyn housbond;” thus seyde he certeyn;" (lines 10-20 Canterbury Tales) In this part of the text, it is obvious that it was custom to marry more than once, but Jesus felt that it was inappropriate and that you could not have so many mates in one lifetime.

The wife tries to defend her past actions by telling the people that there is no place in the bible which states how many partners a person can have. She thinks that God put man and woman on the earth to procreate and multiply numerously; therefore, how can having many husbands, as she has had, be so wrong? She says, "Yet herde I never tellen in myn age Upon this nombre diffinicioun; Men may devyne and glosen up and doun. But wel I woot expres, with-oute lye," (lines 24-27 Canterbury Tales.) With this, she says that she has read and reread the bible, and she still has not found a place where the exact number is stated.

This prologue relates very well to many situations in our everyday life. We, as people, worry too much about what society thinks and accepts. We have the same problems as the wife does with changing customs. When our parents raised us, they taught us the ways in which they were taught. These teachings have been let go slightly and are not enforced as much as they used to be. This always leads to questions on what is acceptable now in society and what is not.