Fernandez 1

Katherine Fernandez

Ms. Figueroa

Senior English

14 December 2018

Chaucer’s Definition

What is love? There are many definitions on how to describe what love is. In Chaucer’s

“Wife of Bath’s Tale” explains how love is all about equality and honoring one another. Chaucer

is known as the “Father of literature” who was the first person to write English. In the times of

King Arthur, there was a young knight who treated a woman despitefully and is sentenced to

death, but king Arthur’s wife made a deal with him that he may live if he can find out what

woman most desire. The knight traveled place to place and got a variety of different answers and

after a year went by he came across an old crone woman who agreed to tell him if in return he

does the first thing she asks. He then agrees and goes to court to tell the Queen what woman

most desired and once he did, the old women stood up and told the Queen what they had agreed

on and the crone demanded the knight to marry her. The knight was miserable and ashamed to

have such an ugly wife. Throughout the story, it shows us how equivalence is important and how

love is not only based upon how we look but on how we feel. At the end of the story we will get

a vision of what Chaucer’s definition of love is.

Chaucer defines love as something that comes from the heart and not from physical

appearance. The knight shows equality and respect towards his wife when he finally see’s her

true intentions and agrees to take her as his wife. “I believe that you are wise and good, and I

take you for my true and faithful wife” (Chaucer 102). The knight’s wife saw how miserable he

was and put him to the test by asking if he preferred her to be beautiful and unfaithful or old and
 Fernandez 1

homely but faithful. He then tells her to choose whatever makes her happy and he will be happy

too and right when he looks up at her, she was no longer old and ugly. Chaucer believes that in a

relationship both partners should be equal and take each other’s say in consideration. “They

begged King Arthur for mercy so often and so earnestly that at length he said, “I will give him to

the Queen, and he may live or die according to her will” (Chaucer 10-11). The King allows the

Queen to sway his decision about killing the knight which shows his respect towards her.

Overall, Chaucer’s definition of love is about what’s within and honoring one another.

Love is about equality and being with someone who wants you for who you are and not

for what they want you to look. The moral of the story is that Chaucer shows us through his story

that partnership should be equal and have mutual respect. Love at the end of the day is not only

going to be based on the persons physical appearance but for how you feel for that person. What

a reader can learn from this is that Ture beauty lies within.
 Fernandez 1

Work cited

Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Canterbury Tales.” 1392.