Geoffrey Chaucers The Canterbury Tales :: essays research papers

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, which was published in March 1981 byBantam Books in vernal York, New York is a funny piece of work about twenty- nightspotcharacters and their stories while on their way to Canterbury. The twenty-nine charactershave to tell both stories on their trip to Canterbury. In the Wife of Bath tale, the wife oftub tells of a tale of a young sawbuck, the central character in the story. After he raped a muliebrity, he must rove the countryside in search to the answer to the question what is itthat women most desire? This is the plot, for he must find the answer in order to live.The dub just has one course to get to answer this question and then he has to return toKing Arthurs court and await his disapprobation. The setting is in King Arthurs court when a young man power saw a pretty maiden andraped her. The King was going to sentence him to death but the Queen decided to givehim one year to answer the question . The story is told from the Wif e of Baths battery-acid ofview for she is narrating the story. So the conflict, being that he has to find the answer, isestablished. The knights journey does not go well. Finally on the last twenty-four hour period that he has, hecomes up to a group of women, as he approaches they disappear and an old fair sexappears. This part is the climax of the plot because it is when the knight finally knows theanswer. The old woman says that she knows the answer but she will sole(prenominal) tell it to theQueen and in return she must do anything that she asks of him. The knight agrees. Finally,while in the presence of the Queen, she tells her that the answer to what all women desireis reign over their husbands. No one disagrees with her answer and so the oldwoman asks that she be married to the knight. The knight having sworn to do whatevershe please reluctantly agrees. But this is not the resolution. It happens later on while ontheir wedding night. The knight is somewhat disgusted and so the old woman goes on tolecture him on the trivial nature of appearances. She tells the knight whether he wouldprefer to have a woman ugly by day, notwithstanding loyal and faithful the rest of the time or to be handsome and take his chances the rest of the time.