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The Wife Of Bath In Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales

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The Wife of Bath’s Tale in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales is about a knight in King Arthur’s court that sexually assaults a young maiden. He is saved by the Queen, but she sends him on a quest to find out what women desire most. Most readers see this as either a tale about growth and understanding of women and human emotion in a time where they were not equal, or about a knight that could care less about women’s emotions and cares more about their physical forms. (add more about thesis about which one is right) This story is usually interpreted in two ways; as a story about self growth and understanding, or as a story about a selfish, bratty knight that acts like most high school students in January. For many reasons, it’s seen as a …show more content…
Even when the old …show more content…
This entire mess started because he can’t take a minute to ask for the consent of a woman and decides to rape her for his own gain. He is only saved because the Queen and her ladies feel that it would be wrong for him to die, which is probably a huge misjudgment on their part. He goes from house to house on that quest so he won’t be killed for disobeying the Queen. When the old woman gives him the answer for his quest, he doesn’t even give her credit. He is so reluctant to marry her and he is extremely rude to her, that he even says “…I don’t care which, whatever you like suits me.” (191) when she asks if the knight wants the old woman to change her physical appearance. It’s a shame that he gave the correct answer, as the spoiled knight gets a beautiful, young, and faithful wife. These are the true colors of the knight: a spoiled man that somehow ends up with everything he wants and endures little suffering for his horrid

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