What Is The Power In The Wife Of Bath's Tale

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In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” starts with her telling about her past and her five husbands, and how her fifth was her favorite except he tried to teach her to be submissive. She then made him burn his texts and surrender his mastery to her. Feminism is nowadays the belief that women are superior to men and that they should be empowered and in charge. The Wife believes she should be in charge in her relationships and controlled her husbands.

Now her tale is about a knight who raped a maiden and was sentenced to death by the king, but then the queen takes charge and asks him, “What is the thing that women most desire?” The queen gives him a year to search for the answer any way he sees fit. So he goes from house to house and from person to person asking them what women most desire, but not a single answer matched another. Finally he comes across this old hag who will tell him if he marries her and then does whatever she asks of him next; he agrees and she tells him women most desire power. Her answers saves him from death and so they get married and on that night she asked him “would you rather have a beautiful wife who is unfaithful or an ugly wife who is every bit faithful to him.” He lets her make the decision and she turns into a young beautiful wife who is faithful. …show more content…

First the queen who gets to decide the knight’s fate. “He gave the queen the case And granted her his life, and she could choose Whether to show him mercy or refuse.”(line 72-74) Then the old hag who will tell him the answer to the queen’s question if he will marry her, and who he lets make the choice in which kind of wife he would rather have. ““My lady and my love, my dearest wife, I leave the matter to your wise decision.”(line 406-407) The point of her story is the only way a man can be happy is if his wife is happy, and for her to be happy she must be in

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