An Analysis of Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale"

        In reading Geoffrey Chaucer's 'Canterbury Tales,' I found that of the Wife of Bath, including her prologue, to be the most thought-provoking. The pilgrim who narrates this tale, Alison, is a gap-toothed, partially deaf seamstress and widow who has been married five times. She claims to have great experience in the ways of the heart, having a remedy for whatever might ail it. Throughout her story, I was shocked, yet pleased to encounter details …

…the seeds of feminism in the minds of some medieval mistresses. Works Cited Bowden, Muriel. A Reader's Guide to Geoffrey Chaucer. New York:         Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1964. Howard, Edwin J. Geoffrey Chaucer. New York: Twayne Publishers,         In., 1964. Justman, Stewart. 'Literal and Symbolic in The Canterbury Tales.'         Modern Critical Views on Geoffrey Chaucer. Ed. Harold         Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1985. Patterson, Lee. Chaucer and the Subject of History. Wisconsin:         The University of Wisconsin Press, 1991