“ No sooner than one husband’s dead and gone some other ChristianMan shall take me on”

Woman of Bath

•Physical characteristics and clothing:- She was deaf in one ear- She was very pretty and had rosy cheeks- She had a gap in between her teeth- She had large hips and big feet- She was very plump- She had scarlet red panty hoes- She had a garter and her shoes were shiny and new

“ So help me god I was a lusty one, fair, young and well-to-do, and full of fun!”

Woman of Bath continued… Words, Experiences, and Traits:

- She liked to laugh, chat and flirt- She was very superficial- She knew all of the old dances- She rained from Bath- She has five dead husbands- She had been to Jerusalem three times- She very much enjoyed sexual intercourse

“ My husband, he shall have it eve and morrow whenever he likes to come And pay his debt, I won’t prevent him!”

Woman of Bath Middle Class Citizen- She was a seamstress

• Inferences:* “ In marrying me, suppose my husbands dead; There’s nothing bigamous in

such a bed.”* “ One of us must be master, man or wife, and since a man’s more reasonable, he should be the patient one, you must agree.”* “ And god and he alone can say how grim, how many were the way I tortured

him.”* “ I think I loved him best, I’ll tell no lie. He was disdainful in his love, that’s

why. We women have a curious fantasy in such affairs, or so it seems to me. When something’s difficult, or cant be had, we crave and cry for it all day like mad.”

Her Story: Main characters: The Knight- Loved women Attractive Rapes a maiden in the forest The Queen:• In control of the Knights fate• witty The old woman Wise Wanted to help the knight Attracted to the knight Random women of the land Attempted to help the knight in his quest for “what do women really want”

Her Story: Setting : In King Arthur’s time Plot synopsis (conflict and resolution):o The Knight rapes a lonely maiden and now must suffer the consequences. The

Queen is in charge of his sentencing. She pities the Knight and decides to spare if he answers the difficult question “ what do women really want”. He has one year and a day to retrieve the answer. After a tedious year of pestering women in the land for an answer, he still does not have a response. On the last day he comes upon an old women on a hill. He asks her what she thinks. She says that she will only tell him if he promises to marry her. He agrees and she replies “ All women want to be in control of their mate”. He returns to the Queen with the answer and she rewards him with his life. He then marries the old women. However on their wedding night he confesses that he is unhappy because she is old and ugly. She asks him then if he would be happier with someone young and beautiful rather than old and ugly. He tells her to make her own choice. Realizing that she has now regained power over the Knight she transforms into an beautiful maiden and lives happily with him until the end of their days.

Her Story: The theme of the tale is female dominance!

The genre is Chivalric Romance Supporting evidence:o The tale tells how the Knight falls in love and learns his lesson while still

facing consequences and difficulties along the way.

o Source of the tale: Medieval Irish Sovereignty Myths such as Niall of the Nine Hostages and from the Medieval poem The wedding of Sir Gawain and Dame Ragnelle. Where King Arthur's nephew goes on a nearly identical journey to find what women really want. It is more commonly known as the “loathly lady”.

Contemporary Counterparts