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Wife of Bath

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Wife of Bath
Chaucer's “The Canterbury Tales”
What Do Women Want?

Issean Lawson

English 12
Dan Pike
November 28, 2012
Lawson 1
What Do Women Want?
“And yet he was the most brutal, too;\ My ribs yet feel as they were black and blue...I guess I loved him best of all, for he\ Gave his love most sparingly to me.”(Chaucer, Wife of Bath Prologue 495-504). The Wife of Bath is as some would say “a loose leaf” or “a wild animal yet to be tamed”. The first three husbands that Alison married allowed her to roam freely and do what ever she wanted when ever she wanted with no objections at all. Then when Alison was with her fourth husband she was also not controlled and told what to do but the fourth husband did to her what she did to the fist three, cheated on her with a paramour, but not sure if that was the best idea for has own personal health.
The fifth and final husband was the exact type of man that she needed to satisfy her lust of domination. Therefore according to Chaucer, women want to be controlled.
Alison, in her younger ages, was married to three old men and they each treated her the same way. Each of these three husbands were bound to cherish every but of her being(Chaucer, Wife of Bath Prologue 198-199). “But since I had them wholly in my hand,\ And since to me they'd give all their land,\ Why should I take heed, then, that I should please.”(Chaucer, Wife of Bath Prologue 211-214). She felt no threat and no desire to compensate with any of there wishes because she knew that no matter what she did and/or said they would still give her what ever she wanted.(Chaucer, Wife of Bath Prologue 223-233). She also used the fact that none of them could preform good enough in bed in order to receive even more of there wealth and belongings.(Chaucer, Wife of Bath Prologue 202-209). Because each of these men were very old and close to there final ages she waited till each of them died to take there money and move on to another husband that might be able to satisfy her
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