TALE OF A CANTERBURY TALE

The Wife of Bath
A knight in King Arthur's court rapes a woman on the side of the road and is sentenced to death by the king for his crime. The Queen pleads that the knight not be executed and the King lets her have her way. The Queen tells the knight that, in return for his life, he must find out what the one thing is that women really want and he must do this before a years time. The knight travels around the kingdom asking all sorts of women but they all give him different answers. Eventually near the very end of his years time, the Knight runs into an ugly old women. She is able to give him the correct answer; that women desire sovereignty over their husbands and loved ones. In order to get this information, the old women made the knight agree to fulfill a request for her. After the knight presents his answer to Queen and is freed, the old woman request to be the knight's wife. The Knight unhappily agrees and refuses to sleep with his new wife. The old woman asks if he would rather have an old, ugly but faithful wife or a young, fair wife who would attract other men. The Knight tells his wife to choose which she would rather be and since he was kind and gave her the power to choose, she agrees to be both. Then, they live happily ever after.

1.) The knight is very shallow because he bases his opinion of the old woman only on her looks. He doesn't bother to try to get to know her, he simply judges her because she is ugly. The Knight is also ungrateful. When the queen spares him he doesn't even thank her, he complains about the task she gives him. The Knight is somewhat intelligent though, because in the end he allows the wife to choose her fate, showing that he learned something from his experiences. He keeps his word by the way that we does successfully get an answer to deliver to the queen. He doesn't mess around, he spent that year looking for an answer. Lastly, the knight is arrogant and disrespectful. He rapes a maiden which is wrong and shows his lack of morals.

2) Chaucer's purpose was to expose flaws in society. As a knight, this man was supposed to be noble and honorable but he is actually neither of those things. Raping a woman and refusing to be with a woman because she is ugly are not honorable actions. The ugly wife even argues with the knight and explains to him how a person's class shouldn't affect how they are perceived. The story shows how men were perceived to have the power, even when they were wrong. The old wife was able to expose those flaws and teach the knight a little bit of respect.