Wife Of Bath's Prologue And Tale

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Summary of Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” “The Wife of Bath” begins with a prologue in which Alison shares information about her life and her experiences. She explains that since she has already had five husband’s she has enough experience and knowledge to discuss the relationship between husband and wife. She tries to explain that though others believe it is wrong that she has been married five times she sees nothing wrong with it. No one has ever given her an exact reply on how many husbands a woman may have in her lifetime. Therefore, she does not see why it bothers so many people. She uses reference from the Bible to condone her actions. Such as the command to go forth and multiply. She also points out that many men in the Bible including Abraham, Jacob, and Solomon had many wives. And uses St. Paul’s caution is that it is …show more content…

The people think the knight should be beheaded for this act of cruelty. The queen begs to be allowed to determine the knight’s fate. The queen informs that knight that if he can tell her what women most desire she will grant him life. She was gracious enough to give the knight a whole year to find the answer. The knight searched everywhere for the answer. He received many answers such as richness, honor, jolliness, lust in bed, to be wed, flattery and love. The knight was at his years end and knew he did not have the answer. On his way back to the queen he was a group of young dancing ladies. In hopes one of these women had the answer he went right away. When he arrived the dancing ladies had vanished. There was one old woman there. She promised to tell him what women most desire if he swears to give her the next thing she demands. With this as his only hope for living he agreed. When the queen bids the knight to speak, he responds correctly that women most desire sovereignty over their

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