The Wife Of Bath Literary Analysis

Why would a woman hit her husband backwards into a fire over simple book? Neither the book nor the answer is simple. The Wife of Bath is at the funeral of her fourth husband (following his suspicious death), and sees a young clerk named Jankyn whom she cannot take her eyes off of. They soon marry and The Wife quickly finds out that he loves to read out of a book that bashes and criticizes women by using religious figures, kings, philosophers, and other religious figures. The Wife reaches a breaking point where she can no longer take this hate on her gender and assaults her husband. When reading The Wife of Bath’s tale, one encounters a knight in search of wisdom pertaining to what is that every woman wants. He comes across an old woman who tells him that “women desire to have dominion / over their husbands as well as their lovers, / and to be above them in mastery”

In short, the knight owes the ugly old woman his life and she requests that he marry her. Naturally he supplicates and pleads something along the lines of: Please take anything you want from me! Money? Land? Choose anything but this! When given the choice of having an old, ugly, faithful, and pleasing wife, or a young, fair, but unfaithful wife, he says dejectedly, “My lady and my love, and wife so dear, / I put myself under you wise control” (239). The ugly old woman acknowledges her mastery over the young nobleman and that is all she needs to hear since she immediately grants him the best of both worlds. This is a direct correlation back to The Wife of Bath’s story regarding her fifth husband, Jankyn. After he is pushed into the fire, he get back up and strikes The Wife so hard that she collapses to the ground. Little does he know that she is playing dead. Jankyn laments and says he still loves her and wants her to stay wit him. By says this he hands over all superiority and and sovereignty. Jankyn even states, “My own true wife / so as you wish the rest of