It is said that “Love makes an an ugly and rude person shine with all beauty, knows how to endow with nobility even one of humble birth, can even lend humility to the proud.” and The Wife of Bath’s story is an example of this belief.

In the story a knight, not so noble, rapes a woman and is being punished for it. The king is willing to execute the knight. However, the queen steps in offers the following. If the knight is able to answer her question in a span of a year he shall not be executed. If he fails to give the correct response, his head will be separated from his body in a permanent manner. The knight agrees. The queen then asks him what is it that women most desire and sends the knight on his way.

The knight wonders across the world but is not able to find an answer and has to return to the queen. On his way he stumbles on an old ugly woman (wow! Very rude Mr. Author, looks are subjective). This woman tells the knight that she will save his life if he promises that he will fulfill her one wish. The knight agrees and the woman tell him the answer.

They march together to meet the queen. And the knight gives the queen a response supplied to him by the woman, the queen agrees that the response is correct and the knight is spared. Now, that the knight’s life is spared he must fulfill the woman’s wish. The woman demands that the knight would marry her. The knight begs her to ask for something else but it is no use and he is forced to marry her.

After the marriage the woman can see that the knight is dissatisfied with her looks and offers him a choice. She can either remain old and not pretty, but remain a good wife. Or she can be very pretty but not loyal. The knight, that has learned his lesson says that he shall let her choose, since she is the wife. The wife is delighted and turns both beautiful and remains loyal and they both live happily ever after.

Recently, we have learned about loneliness through ancient Anglo-Saxon poems. The three poems we have used for reference were “The Seafarer” “The Wanderer” and “The Wife’s Lament.” The most noticeable similarity was the constant reminiscing of home. In “The Seafarer” the narrator reminiscences about about his homeshores, and about the life on land; the wanderer thinks about the life at the side of his king; and the wife remembers the life before she was banished.

Another similarity was the constant theme of frost. In “The Seafarer” it comes up in the phrase “Freezing waves;” while in “The Wanderer” the speaker mentions that he sails upon “frozen waves;” and in “The Wife’s Lament” the speaker curesses the man who exiled her, to sit “under a rocky cliff rimed with frost.”