Rachel Broom
Professor Waldrep
World Literature I
20 April 2017
The Wife of Bath
Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales is very well-known for its memorable and
captivating characters. Of these characters, one of the ones that stands out the most and is most
memorable is the Wife of Bath. This character has had five husbands and she takes great pride in
the fact that she has dominated over every single one of them. She is first introduced in the
general prologue of The Canterbury Tales as “gap toothed” (W. W. Norton & Company) which,
in that time period, was a sign of great sexual desire and lust. It is also said that “the remedies of
love she knew by heart.” (W. W. Norton & Company). At a glance, the Wife of Bath seems to be
a manipulative, stingy, provocative woman who only cares about herself, satisfying her own
desires, and pays no attention to the feelings and opinions of others. Even though this seems to
be her character, Chaucer’s audience is captivated by this woman and she has received a great
deal of attention from the readers. While the selfish, inconsiderate attributes may be part of her
character, there is more to her than that if you look beyond the surface. She finds a way to be a
loveable character in spite of her apparent egotistical behavior. She also manages to be
captivating to readers in the medieval time period and continues to captivate the audience in the
present, modern day.
Before looking past the first impression you get when you look at the Wife of Bath at a
glance, we can look at the more selfish personality traits of the character and still find her to be a
captivating character. Her ways of manipulation and deception are actually quite humorous as
well as rather charming in a way. Think of your favorite movie villain or any kind of villain that
you like, for example, Loki from The Avengers movie series. He is manipulative, selfish, and
egotistical, yet the audience cannot help but love him. His cunning and deception are portrayed
in a way that makes it charming and engaging. Not to say that the Wife of Bath is a villain of any
sort, but some of the same personality traits apply. Her deception is charming and almost
impressive in some cases. David Parker said in his literary criticism that “There is a sense of
abundant life about her…” (Parker) This makes her appealing to the reader in a personal way. She
also just wants to be in control and show several different men a good time. Her defense to
justify these actions is rather amusing too, which is another reason readers are drawn to her. She
justifies her actions of marrying multiple men by taking bits and pieces of the Bible and, in a
