What is the Wife of Bath suggesting?

The Wife of Bath asks that Jesus send “Us husbands meek and young and fresh in bed,/ And grace to overbid them when we wed.” This quote suggests that women really just want someone they can control (“overbid”) who can also satisfy their sexual appetites.

Why is the woman referred to as the Wife of Bath?

The fact that she hails from Bath, a major English cloth-making town in the Middle Ages, is reflected in both her talent as a seamstress and her stylish garments. Bath at this time was fighting for a place among the great European exporters of cloth, which were mostly in the Netherlands and Belgium.

Why did the Wife of Bath have five husbands?

She does not see anything wrong with the fact that she has had five husbands, because she says that even God wants man to increase and multiply: “God bad is for to wexe and multiplye: that gentil text can I wel understonde” (Chaucer 117).

What did the wife of Bath do to her fourth husband?

Near the end of her Prologue, the Wife announces that she will speak about her fourth husband. Husband #4 had a lover in addition to the Wife. To punish him for this, the Wife convinced him that she, too, was cheating. The Wife buried him inexpensively, regarding opulence in his funeral a waste.

Who is the wife in the wife of Bath?

First of all, the Wife is the forerunner of the modern liberated woman, and she is the prototype of a certain female figure that often appears in later literature. Above all, she is, for the unprejudiced reader, Chaucer’s most delightful creature, even if some find her also his most outrageous.

Why did the clerk tell the wife of Bath a tale?

In fact, her views prompt the Clerk to tell a tale of a character completely opposite from the Wife of Bath’s tale. Her prologue presents a view of marriage that no pilgrim had ever conceived of and is followed by a tale that proves her to be correct.

Who is the wife of Bath in the Canterbury Tales?

And for to been in maistrie hym above.” The tale the Wife of Bath tells about the transformation of an old hag into a beautiful maid was quite well known in folk legend and poetry. One of Chaucer’s contemporaries, the poet John Gower, wrote a version of the same tale that was very popular in Chaucer’s time.

Why was the wife of Bath heretical to the church?

For the Clerk and the Parson, her views are not only scandalous but heretical; they contradict the teachings of the church. In fact, her views prompt the Clerk to tell a tale of a character completely opposite from the Wife of Bath’s tale.