Wife Of Bath Prologue Analysis

The prologue “Wife of Bath” was about a woman who had 5 husbands and spoke about the relationships between man and women. The prologue is her speaking about her experience with men and how people reacted to her love life when they found out the amount of husbands she had throughout her lifetime. To the reader it is instantly evident that there were good, missing, and bad entities in the story. In my opinion, I believe she was all three. The reason why I state that she was missing is because, mentally, the kindness in her heart was not there. This is evident when she tells the audience that she used to tease her “good husbands” and play with their feelings.There was a section where she spoke about how she used to make them believe actions they did not take, such as cheating, in order to make them submissive to her. Because of her capability to this, she was missing to me. As the story went on, I also observed that she could be categorized as the evil. This is because of her deceitful nature. The Wife continues to tell the reader of how she used to make her husbands feel guilty in order to make them give her money. Because this can be interpreted as stealing and dishonesty, as minor as it may seem to some, she can be categorized as evil. …show more content…
Even though part of her is evil and missing, there are parts of her that have some good. This is evident in her being the confident, strong woman she seems to be when people question her love choices. She puts herself as an authority figure, which is not something women at the time were known for. She is empowered by the fact that she has had so many marriages, and that puts fortitude in her personality. It is mentioned in the reading that men were allowed to have multiple wives, and in the story we see her challenge that idea by flipping the gender roles.

“Wife of Bath” was one of the most disturbing stories I have read! At the surface of it, it seems as if it were just a woman complaining about her spouses and how they treated her. However, when one dives deeper into the plot it is evident that this story is supposed to brainwash men into thinking women love to be in charge of everything. This story, to me, exhibits what a stereotypical woman is. This story can be taken by men and twisted into hard evidence of how men are the ones that truly have the control, until they hand it over. The story makes women look like they need men to give them permission to have the power they desire. It puts women down instead of empowering them by making them seem like they are beneath men. However, even with that I still believe that the wife attempted to flip gender roles. She attempted to draw herself as the authority figure and made herself believe she was in charge of the strength of her power. This may inspire some women to find ways to feel powerful, but the wife gives them the wrong way to do it. More than anything, wife can be classified as the evil of the story. This is because of her deceitful nature. The Wife continues to tell the reader of how