According to “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” why does the knight agree to marry the old woman? He believes she will turn into a young woman when he marries her.
What deal does the old woman make with the knight?
She gives him one year and one day to come up with the correct answer to the question. In his quest to find the correct answer, the Knight travels all over. Finally, an Old Woman is able to provide the answer for him, and she will give him the answer on one condition, that he will do whatever she asks next of him.
What reason does the knight first give for being unable to marry the old woman?
What is the first reason the knight gives for being unable to marry the woman? She is too old and ugly.
Who does the knight marry in the Wife of Bath’s tale?
The knight meets the loathly lady in a field when he is on his way back to Arthur’s court, and promises to grant her request if she tells him what women most desire. Reluctantly, the knight marries the loathly lady, but refuses to sleep with her on their wedding night, telling her she’s old, ugly, and lowborn.
What happens in the end to the knight and the old woman?
The old woman turns out to be the Wife of Bath. The old woman decides the knight will never love her and leaves, and the knight meets the love of his life the next day.
How does the old woman save the knight’s life?
The woman asks if she can be of help, and the knight explains his predicament and promises to reward her if she can help him. The woman tells the knight that he must pledge himself to her in return for her help, and the knight, having no options left, gladly consents. She then guarantees that his life will be saved.
What lessons does the old woman teach the knight?
What lessons does the old woman teach the young knight about? a. nobility/ gentility– Does not come from lineage but has to be who you are behind doors and being a gentlemen.
What does the wife of Bath symbolize?
In the “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” Alison is suggesting control that women should have. She is a strong-willed and dominant woman who herself gets what she wants when she wants it. She cannot accept defeat no matter what the cost.
What does wife of Bath represent?
Critics such as Carolyn Dinshaw in her book Chaucer’s Sexual Poetics have argued that the Wife of Bath represents feminist values in that she challenges patriarchy and gives voice to female desire.
What are the two choices the knight gets from his wife?
The loathly lady offers the knight two choices: he can either have her old and ugly but faithful, or young and beautiful but with no guarantee of her fidelity.
Why did the fifth husband marry the Wife of Bath?
He cannot find the answer until he meets an old woman who tells him that women want control over their husbands. Because she gave him the answer to save his life, the knight miserably marries the old woman. She gives him a choice to be an old and good wife or a beautiful and unfaithful wife.
Why is the knight the hero in the Wife of Bath’s tale?
The knight is the protagonist because all of the action in the story surrounds him (and his mistakes). He’s also the protagonist because of a convention of the romance genre, in which the main character is most often a man (sorry, ladies), usually a knight, who undergoes personal growth in the course of the story.
What lesson does the knight learn in the Wife of Bath’s tale?
He eventually learns from an ugly old woman that all women desire sovereignty, the ability to make their own choices. As repayment for giving him the answer and saving his life, the knight must fulfill one request for the old woman, and she asks him to marry her.
What did the knight do to the maiden?
One day as he is riding from the river, he sees a maiden walking before him. He rapes this maiden despite her cries for mercy, taking her maidenhood. Because of this crime, people raise such a hue and cry of protest before King Arthur he sentences the knight to beheading. This was the law then.
What is the name of the woman both knights fell in love with?
Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Knight’s Tale” found in The Canterbury Tales, is the story of two knights from Thebes who fall in love with the same woman, a princess of Athens named Emily.
What are the knights three main complaints about the old woman?
Knights are supposed to be respectful of their elders; on his wedding night, he tells the loathly lady to her face that she’s ugly, old, and low-born.
What does the old hag symbolize inside the story?
A hag, in many mythologies and folk tales, is a woman who can fluidly transition the boundary between youth and old age and often symbolizes the aging process for women.
Why did the old woman promise the knight both beauty and fidelity?
20. Why did the old woman promise him both beauty and fidelity? By giving her the choice, he allowed her mastery over him, her husband.
What does the old woman reveal and what does she want the knight to do?
The answer is in the hands of an old lady who is described as an ugly, horrid fowl creature. In return for the answer the decrepit woman wants the knight to marry her. The knight has no choice and marries the hag.
How does the old woman get the knight to change his attitude toward marrying her?
He thinks the queen will not have him killed if he is married. She promises him that she knows the secret to what all women want. She deceived him with magic, making him think she was beautiful. In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” the old woman insists the knight marry her as her reward.
Does the knight change in the Wife of Bath?
The only development of the knight’s character comes at the end of the tale, when he accepts his wife’s arguments and realizes what he has done wrong. However, even then he is manipulated by her into giving her what she wants (which is the power to make decisions).