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Discussion Questions: The Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale 1. Reread the Wife of Bath in the General Prologue (pg 133). Based on the facts we have uncovered, what inferences can you make about the Wife of Baths character?

2. Based on the style in which she tells her Prologue, what can you infer about the Wife of Bath?

3. The setting of the Wife of Baths tale is King Arthurs Court. How do you know Chaucer is mocking this ideal, and what is his overall comment?

4. What was the knights crime? What is his punishment?

5. What effect does the allusion to Midas achieve? What does this effect suggest about the Wife of Bath?

6. What bargain do the knight and the old woman strike?

7. What payment for her help does the old woman demand? What is the knights response?

8. In lines 276-278 the knight moans about having the old woman for his wife. How does she respond to each objection he raises?

9. What final choice does the old woman offer the knight at the end of the tale? What is his response?

10. How does the knights response to the choice given to him by the old woman show that hes learned his lesson about what woman want?

11. What opinions does the Wife of Bath express in the tale? What do all her opinions-and her tale itself- tell you about her character?

12. What do men and women today think the other wants most out of life or out of a relationship? (Have attitudes changed since Chaucers time?)