The Wife Of Bath's Tale Essay

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Recommended: Analysis of the wife of bath's prologue and tale

The Wife Of Bath’s Tale is a magnificent story, that relates and under covers what every women wants, and what every man dreads. This tale is very unique concerning how rebellious it was to the views of the time period it was written in and even in the values that are set in stone today. Chaucer did an excellent job of expressing his outward views towards the subject of how women should be treated. The story starts off with a Knight who has just been convicted on the crimes of rape on a young lady, he is condemned to death by hanging, until the queen chirps up and makes a deal with him, if he can come back in one year and a day and tell her what every women wants then he will be hanged. The knight runs around for that entire year, soul …show more content…

He runs around the kingdom with no success, and is unable to find a suitable answer to the question, on one that all the women could agree on, oh the irony! Finally, when he is all out of hope and about to come back empty handed he comes along an old women who tells him his final answer, and the correct one at that, “‘My liege and lady, in general,’ said he, ‘A woman wants a self-same sovereignty Over her husband as over her lover, And master him; he must not be above her. That is your greatest wish, whether you kill or spare me; please yourself. I wait your will.’” (Page 143 Lines 183-188). This statement is basically just saying that all women want to have their own free will, and to have power over those of the opposite …show more content…

What inferences that are made that shows you that the knight did in fact learn his lesson is from the old lady’s response to him giving her the choice to do whatever she wanted in the manner that she threw at him in the first place. “‘And have I won the Mastery?’ said she, ‘Since I’m to choose and rule as I think fit?’ ...’Kiss me,’ she cried. ‘No quarrels! On my oath And word of honor, you shall find me both... .’” (Page 149 Lines 382-386). She is so excited that he has given her the decision on her own that she exclaims and swears that she will be both just for him, he definitely learned his

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