Prologue

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s tale, he opens with a description that is going on a pilgrimage. The wife of Bath stands out more compared to the other characters, the wife of bath is described as very outrageous. She expresses her views with infinite zest and conviction, with such determined assurance in the correctness that no pilgrim can argue with her logic; they can be shocked by it, but they cannot refute it. She reveals that the head of the house should always be the woman, that a man is no match for a woman, and that as soon as they learn to yield to the sovereignty of women, men will find a happy marriage. She mentions that she has always followed the rule of experience rather than authority. She already had five husbands enough to make her an expert. Her message is that, ugly or fair, women should be obeyed in all things by their husbands. She feels as though the thing women most desire is complete control ” sovereignty” over their husbands. Since she has experienced it all because she was married five times. 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. As she unfolds her life history in her prologue, fter the Wife of Bath departs from the holy scriptures, she appeals to common sense – if everyone remained a virgin, she offers, who would be left to give birth to more virgins? Even more basic, she maintains that the sex organs are to be used for pleasure as well as for procreation: She admits that she is a boisterous woman who enjoys sex and is not ashamed of it – a violation of the medieval view that saw sex as justified only for procreation. She also denies the popular belief that women should be submissive, especially in matters of sex. the moral of the folk tale of the loathsome hag is that true beauty lies within