Self & Society: British Lit @Hood College

In the Wife of Bath's Tale there is a knight that is talked about. From my understanding he took advantage of a girl and the King wanted to kill him. I did some googling and this was what I gathered from it. So he basically raped this girl for no other reason than that he simply wanted to. Then these girls begged the King not to kill him and sent him instead on a mission. A mission to find out what it is that women really want. I found this odd, I remember thinking it was strange in high school as well when I read this. Why would they want him to stay alive after he did that awful thing, and why would they send him on such a wild goose chase. Theres the phrase, "A happy wife is a happy life" and this came to mind while I was reading because there is such truth in that statement. The Knight ends up coming up with the answer that women just want control of the relationship. This is an interesting concept, and I agree to a certain extent. Women like to be in control and have...

The answer to Queen Guinevere's question was that women want to rule over their husbands and love (not as in to completely dominate, but as a good ruler would, hence using the word "sovereignty"). During the story, we see the Knight go from being a man, who had completely taken away a maiden's choice when he raped her, to a man who willingly yielded the power over him to his much older wife. The Knight learned his lesson, but no matter how many times I read this, I still can't get over him both living and having his happy ending. Something I'm curious about is whether the old woman knew of his crime. He never tells her why he's searching for what women want, so does she know? If so, why did she want to marry him? If not, I wonder what her reaction would be? Credit: StoryboardThat by subaca http://www.storyboardthat.com/storyboards/subaca/the-wife-of-bath%27s-tale