Essay On The Wife Of Bath's Prolougue

The Wife of Bath’s prolougue shares information about the Wife’s experiences. In the beginning of this prologue the reader can wonder if the Wife is mearly speaking out of the frustration and as one wanting equal standing with men. During these times women did not have as much power and authority as men did. The churches of that time was dominated by men. The reader can also wonder if the Wife’s intention was not for equality by for complete sovereignty without the flexibility of sharing that authority with a man. This paper will analyze the Wife of Bath’s prologue, the Wife intention’s and if this Canterbury Tale displays the Wife as a positive, negative, or neautral figure in the tale. The Wife of Bath’s prologue portrays a woman who used our own experiences as her guide rather than any other authority. In this prologue she explains how she has had five husbands and that makes her an expert with the opposite sex. The Wife of Bath seems very permicious and often references some of the Biblical teachings of Jesus in order to fulfill her own selfish desires. In the prologue she says “God bade us to increase and multiply (p. 804) as she attempts to explain that there is nothing wrong with having five

And when I had thus gathered unto me Masterfully, the entire sovereignty (p. 818).” The author illustrates in this tale that a women’s desire is to control the people in their lives by any means necessary. The Wife often times uses her love of sex to obtain the things that she wants, which was against the medieval and church beliefs of that time. The Wife of Bath feels like her experience of having the authority and soverighnty over her five husbands qualifies her to oppose the beliefs of that time. She denied the belief that women should be submissive to their husbands or anyone