Critical Analysis Of The Wife Of Bath

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The Wife of Bath has a very negative view of women because she shows how women misuse their power given to them. She depicts women as being manipulative and always placing the blame on others. The Wife of Bath “wrecked [her husbands’] peace, innocent as they were, without remorse! For [she] could bite and whinney like a horse and launch complaints when things were all [her] fault”(268-269). She shows how women are not strong enough to accept their own faults; therefore, they take advantage of their youth given by God, and attack old, innocent men. Moreover, in her tale, the Wife of Bath shows how the old woman takes advantage of her power to make the knight …show more content…

Instead, she could have shown her youth, which would have made the knight happy, but purposely chose to upset the knight. This basically portrays women as an obstacle for men who serve to annoy men. In addition, the Wife of Bath plays dead after her husband hits her to get property back. After getting her husband to the point of begging to her to forgive him, she makes a deal with him and says “but in the end we made it together. He gave me the bridle over to my hand, gave me the government of house and land”(280). Her husband had given her all the power through his pleading and rather than set him straight by teaching him not to be misogynistic, she is greedy and asks for all her property back. Finally, the Wife of Bath shows how the queen misused her power to foolishly decide the knight’s destiny. After much pleading to receive power over the knight’s life, the king eventually gives the queen the final authority. However, rather than give a fair test to decide the knight’s fate, she asks him a simple question, “ What is the thing women most desire?”(282). This act by the queen does not give proper justice to either the knight or the

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