To some modern day feminist critics, like Carolyn Dinshaw, Chaucer was protofeminist, a writer ahead of his time, who used the medium of literature to speak out against the injustices the opposite gender suffered. Nevertheless, I feel that Chaucer was fundamentally a writer and a product of the misogynistic times in which he lived. The feminist reading of Chaucer seeks to prove (through the means of historical information; satirical study; and stereotyping of the other pilgrims) that the Wife of Bath represents not Chaucer's act of feminism, but his apparent reconstruction of Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun's "La Vieille" in The Romance of the Rose. His parody of the "Old Woman's" speech exemplifies the same content, which are her life and the wiles of women. (Beidler 18) One has to wonder why then did Chaucer use the "La Vieilla" as a model for his Wife of Bath if it was not to make fun of women. In t

And for to been in maistrye him above,

It leads us to believe that women are confused. They do not even agree on what it is that they most desire. We later find out in the Tale what it is that women want:

Wher that we goon: we wol been at oure large. (324-28)

"Wommen desire to have sovereinetee

Chaucer makes it evident also in the Tale itself that the focus is not on the poor raped maiden or even on the old hag, but the focus gears toward the knight. We feel sorry for the knight. It is easy to focus on Chaucer's true intentions, we the reader center our attention still on the dangerous male (poet or rapist): he is the one we care to condemn or save, while the woman in the picture (the Wife or the maiden) fades into the background. (Hansen 288)

Thou shouldest saye, 'Wif, go where thee leste.

I believe that once again Chaucer is using the Wife as an expression of his antifeminist agenda by showing how this answer to what women want is the perceived answer of a male author trying to personify his thoughts in a woman fictional character. So then, we see the answer to the other question that Hansen asks:

We love no man that taketh keep or charge

In The Wife of Bath's Tale itself Chaucer continues to make fun of women with the question "what it is most desire". The knight spends one year trying to discover the answer and finds that women's opinions vary:

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1906
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)