The Wife of Bath's Tale

The knight's answer to the Queen's riddle in "The Wife of Bath's Tale" is that women most desire to have power over their husbands and lovers. This answer saves him from execution and demonstrates...

The irony in "The Wife of Bath's Tale" is that the knight's life is spared by learning that women desire sovereignty, yet he loses his own sovereignty by pledging to marry the hag who gives him this...

The Wife of Bath in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales is a bold, outspoken character who reflects her personality through her tale. She is a lustful, confident woman who has been married five...

The Knight believes the old woman's answer because he is in a desperate situation, needing to provide the Queen with the correct answer to avoid death. The old woman appears in a supernatural...

The knight discovers that what women most desire is sovereignty over their own lives and relationships. This revelation comes from an old woman who helps him in exchange for marriage. Initially...

In "The Wife of Bath's Tale," the knight's plea "Take all my wealth and let my body go" reflects his desperation to avoid marrying and consummating the marriage with the old hag who provided the...

The knight is a necessary character in the story... ...because Chaucer's point is not made unless he can show what happens when a man does not understand women.