Melissa Hinton Eng 2003 Wife of Bath Discussion As I stated in our Oral Tradition Presentation during week 3, I had

several traumas as a child. I can relate to the victim of this story quite well. After forcing the young woman into submission her lovely flower wilted. Just as she had died inside, so did the flower. She looked poorly upon the accused Knight, as the Queen abused him. Once the deflowered woman saw that the Knight was forced to marry an unfortunate looking elderly woman, her flower blossomed again. I suppose she felt as if she had her vengeance. I thought it was quite comical that the old hag blackmailed him into marriage. He is vapid, and deserves a lifetime of misery and disgust. A life with a dreadfully unfortunate woman is far worse than death by decapitation. In the end, though, the hag teaches him that he doesnt need to be materialistic or judgmental about a persons appearance. The clever hag has gained the Knights respect and is able to transform herself into an attractive woman since he no longer fights against her will. I think watching the animation was a valuable tool to help gain other viewpoints of the text. For me, its easier to interpret this type of poetry when I have other illustrations to go by. While I do believe a life sentence with a miserable old hag is just, I wish shed not transformed herself. In the end the crime did not really fit the punishment once she altered her appearance. The Knight was taught a valuable lesson, but the young woman he raped didnt receive a proper revenge. I do suppose if she never knew that the Knights wife transformed herself to a beautiful woman it wouldnt hurt her. Ignorance is bliss; or so Im told. A lot of people think that many of Chaucers other works are quite sexist, but I think that this story is a perfect way of showing that he was not. In fact, this particular story is fairly radical considering the times during which he was writing his stories. There are definitely elements of a power struggle between men and women within Wife of Bath. Everything seems to balance itself out in terms of retribution and supremacy.