the wife of bath

Part of what I love about literature is that a story written hundreds of years ago can still apply to the human condition today. We have made astounding technological advances since Chaucer's time yet men are still unable to figure out what women really want. The old hag suggests an answer to this question but it seems that either men have been unwilling to submit to the fairer sex or that her answer is just plain wrong. Why else are we still reading books entitled "Men are From Mars, Women are from Venus"? Other issues are addressed that are still prevelant today. She points out that women want the forbidden, not the readily available. This seems to be true of women and men-its all in the thrill of the chase.

Another aspect of the story that interested me were her extreme feminist ideals in a very anti-feminist society. Her prologue and tale express the desire of women to usurp the patriarachal power that dominates society. She admits to using sex as power and defies the idea that women should be seen as mindless property through her story in which women assume roles of power.

What I found most interesting however was the way she described her husbands. She deemed her first three husbands "good" because they were submissive and the last two "bad" because they were not. Yet the last two were the only ones that she seemed to love and care about. Perhaps they were problematic relationships, but what made her see them as "bad" was the fact that not being able to control them meant that she lost control of herself. To admit that their actions caused her grief was to admit that they had control over her. To be in love and to be vulnerable threatened her feminist ideals.