Women In The Wife Of Bath's Tale

In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” the knight received a punishment and was rewarded as well for violently raping an innocent girl just because he could not control himself. In the beginning of the tale, the knight was selfish and masochistic and clearly wanted to show his power and dominance over the girl by raping her, to prove that women could not have control over men. Chaucer states, “Hadde in his hous a lusty bacheler, that on a day cam rydinge fro river; and happed that, allone as she was born, he saugh a mayde walkinge him biforn of whiche mayde anon, maugree hir heed, by verray force he rafte hir maydenheed…” (Chaucer 26-32). The knight was punished for what he had done, but not in the way the reader may expect. He had to search for a year what women wanted most, and when he found the answer (that women wanted to be in charge of their lovers and spouses), he was allowed to live but had to marry the hag who gave him the answer.
At the end of the tale, the old, ugly wife gave the knight the option to either be married to her as an aged and homely woman but she would be faithful to him, or he could choose for her to be beautiful and young but be unfaithful to him. He replied, “My lady and my love, and wyf so dere, I put me in your wyse governance; cheseth your-self, which may be most plesance, and most honour to yow and me also. I do no fors the whether of the two; for as yow lyketh, it suffiseth me” (Chaucer 374-379). This meant that he gave all of the control to his wife for her to make the decision, therefore understanding that women are ultimately capable of making the decisions in a relationship, and proving his growth from a man that just wanted dominance over women by rape, to a man who could give women the power over him. Because of the price he had to pay, most say he learned his lesson and deserved to be pardoned from the rape he had