Wife of Bath

A detailed Summary of Wife of Bath

The Wife of Bath, Dame Alice is quite a spiteful woman even though she desires only a few simple things in life; power and control. Through her prologue and tale, she makes mirror images of herself , which reflects the person who she really is.

Dame Alice desires the obvious in life, but what she most desires above all is being more powerful than her man, her spouse, and her lover. In a relationship, she wishes to be dominant, the one who has the last to say, the one who has control over all things in the relationship. This can be first seen in her prologue, "I'll have a husband yet who shall be both my debtor and my slave and bear his tribulation to the grave upon his flesh, as long as I'm his wife. For mine shall be the power all his life over his proper body, and not he..."(55-59). It is then shown again in her tale when knight returns the castle and fulfills the task assigned by the queen, "a woman wants the self-same sovereignty over her husband as over her lover, and master him; he must not be above her" (174-176). Yet another example of Dame Alice's wish to be dominant is presented later in the tale told by her. The old hag, after marrying the knight, gives him a choice. It was either to have her old and u

The major similarity between Dame Alice and the old hag is the appearance. Both Dame Alice and the hag are not very attractive and both are old. Dame Alice is describes herself as "I was forty then, to tell the truth. But still, I always had a coltish tooth. Yes, I'm gap toothed; it suits me well..."(394-396). The old hag is described by the knight in the tale as "old, and so abnomably plain, so poor to start with, so low-bred to follow..."(236-237). The old hag is then described as being "old and fouler then a fen"(303).

By comparing the Wife of Bath's prologue to her tale, it is quite obvious that Dame Alice wants to be the old hag. In some aspects, Dame Alice can be said to be jealous of the old hag. After all, the hag was given power and dominance over her husband. In Dame Alice's true life it was not completely true. The husbands that Dame Alice had, "three of them were good and two were bad." (92) The three that she had were called 'good' because they "were rich and old..."(93) Dame Alice had complete control over them. But for her fourth and fifth husband, there was another story. The fourth one cheated on her and the fifth one, Johnny, she loved most, "the one I took for love and not for wealth..."(339) And it is because she loved

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Approximate Word count = 853
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English

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