Wife of Bath Essay

In the medieval times many women were able to take advantage of men. In these times if a man or a knight were to hurt or violate a woman, he would be taken to court to be punished. In King Arthur's court of law, his queen can implore him to give her the case and choose what to do with the criminal. In the Wife of Bath's tale written by Geoffrey Chaucer there was an old woman that used rules of chivalry so a promise kept from a knight to her wouldn't be turned down. In the Wife Of Bath's tale a knight is taken to court to be punished for violating a maiden. In King Arthur's court, Arthur condemned that the knight should be put to death and lose his head. Then the king's queen implores him and uses a chivalry rule to take the knight's case to give the knight a second chance in life and to give him a challenge. She gives the knight a quest, she wants him to find the answer to what the thing is that women desire most and she gives the knight twelve months and one day. After the knight goes on search for his quest he asks many people but mostly women for the answer that the queen wants and that will also dictate his own life. Many answers are given to him but he doesn't know the real answer. Then as the deadline of his quest nears him an old woman makes him a deal that if she would give him the right answer he would marry her. The knight agrees and they both go back to the court and the knight gives the queen the answer and he is correct but then the old woman steps in and confesses that she gave him the answer so the knight had no choice but to marry her. The knight is set free to go with his life thanks to the old woman that he has to marry. The old woman, king and queen knew that what the old woman did was gentillesse towards the knight and the old woman knew he wasn't happy with it. The knight had also told the old woman about his problem with the court so the old woman also used the chivalry rules of King Arthur's court that let his queen determine the knight's life to get what she wanted. The old woman wanted the guarantee of the knight's approval and to get the upper hand in their marriage. In conclusion, in the medieval times in Briton, if a man were to violate or hurt his wife, he would be taken to court and he'd be punished. Women are given the upper hand in marriage when she acts in a way of gentillesse in saving man's life after the man violated a young woman in a court's process. In a medieval court's process when a man is in a promise of repaying a woman by marrying her, the man has no choice after the woman saved his life. In the Wife of Bath's tale written by Geoffrey Chaucer there was an old woman that used rules of chivalry so a promise kept from a knight to her wouldn't be turned down.