The Wife of Bath's Tale - Chaucer

This tale was interesting and not one of my favorites of the semester. It begins with a knight escaping death as a result of the Queen and her ladies. This knight was brought to King Arthur and the court after he raped a woman. The king and court, disgusted by his actions, wish death upon him, but the queen and her ladies prevent this and give him a task - to find what women want most in the world within the year. If he succeeds, he lives, and if he fails, he dies.

This task becomes more challenging for him than he thought. Each woman he talks to gives a different answer of what women desire most. There is no universal answer in the world as to what women want most that he can bring back to the court. Luckily for him, he comes across an old woman who is willing to help with the task if he rewards her if she is right by pledging himself to her. He agrees and is told the correct answer - that women want power and control over their husbands; they want to be in charge. Because she saved his life, he must marry her even though he does not want to. He is unhappy in this marriage and it is noticed by the woman. She gives him the choice to stay with her until she is "foul and old" until she dies, a humble wife who will never displease him, or to keep her "young and beautiful" and risk having others come to visit her and her beauty. He is to choose one, but lets her decide since the one thing women want most is to be in charge of their husbands, "I care not which of the two, for it is sufficient to me to please you." Because he let the woman decide and gave her what she wanted, control in the relationship, she rewarded him by staying humble and loyal and becoming young and beautiful.

This tale shows the women's thirst for power and control. They want to make decisions as well and have a say. They do not want to be controlled and told what to do anymore. Just by giving them the chance to make decisions and take charge for some things, they will be happy and in return, in this instance, reward the men as this can be seen as respect for women.