The Wife of Bath's Prologue

PROLOGUE ON MYSELF: I am Amber Atkinson, 22 years old from Norfolk Virginia. I come from a hard broken life and know suffering and know what it means to have nothing. I grew up without a lot and it helped me grow into the independent person i am now. I am a Little control freak and organize my life a lot. Sadly that means I'm really bad at relaxing and just letting things go with the flow. I love being in control and working extremely hard for everything i have and want in my life.

For our first assignment for Literature and media studies was to read and analyze the Wife of Baths by Chaucer. His story is written in what we now call "Middle English" which was used during the Middle Ages. The prologue starts off explaining the basis of her theories about experience as a woman who has had a full life and has studied the Bible many times. Her theory was that women most desire is complete control over their husbands. Because she has had five husbands, the Wife feels that she can speak up more then other people because of her life experiences. Back in this time woman were shamed for multiple marriages and for being overly sexual. But She knew better. She studied the Scripture and told them that the lord wouldn't just give them pleasure so the sake of making more virgins. It had to be for much more. She also denies the popular belief that women should be submissive, especially in matters of sex. To help explain her case she told these men a tale.

She told a tale of a man who raped a girl and was going to be sentenced. But in this tale if a crime was done against woman then woman would decided his fate.  They told him to travel the world for a year to find out what woman want most. A year goes by and he is on his way to the courts to stand in front of these woman again without his answer. On his way he sees at the bottom of a hill these beautiful young ladies dancing and laughing when someone approaches him and speaks. She said that she will tell him the answer he wants most if he does something in return for her as a thank you for saving his life. He agrees. The answer was that woman want control the most in a relationship. Later that day he is in bed with his new old ugly wife and is upset. She told him that if he wants he she can turn into a young beautiful woman for him but having a young beautiful wife can come with heartache, cheating and flirting around. Or she said she could stay the way she is and he can just love her and she will never cheat and always take care of him. His response was for her to choose his fate. I believe he learned his lesson and gave the woman complete control over his life.