Confession : to manipulate or to be manipulated?

Abstract

Tracing both the Wife of Bath’s and the Pardoner’s prologue and tale, this paper seeks to explore the confession narrative in both tales and first elucidate how both the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner shrewdly manipulate the discourse of confession to influence what they want their audience to perceive, through the strategic construction of their confession narratives. Following which, as we observe both the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner establish the tenacious and rebellious, arrogant and self-obsessed persona that they strive to portray to their audience respectively, the dramatic tension that Chaucer revels in will be presented at this juncture when we witness both characters lapsing into moments whereby they divulge intimate details unintentionally, rendering them vulnerable and weak. The chasm between what the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner intended to portray to the audience and what we ultimately perceive will definitely propel the audience to question the genuine personas of both these characters. Consequently, this paper will finally demonstrate that the Wife of Bath and the Pardoner are ultimately still incapable of suppressing their real emotions or innate desires and as a result, have no complete control of themselves.