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| https://www.montville.net/Page/5093 |
"The Woman of Bath" was a bout a knight that wasn't so brave. The knight rapes a woman, for his own selfish reasons, and ends up getting in trouble by the queen. The queen tells the knight he has a year and one day to find out what women desire most. If he didn't find out, he would be sentenced to death. He was getting different answers from many different women and couldn't figure out what it is that women desire most. On his final day, he still hadn't found his answer. Riding by the forest, he came upon this hideous looking lady. She told him if he would do anything she wanted, she would tell him what women desire most. The knight when back to the queen, sure of his answer. He told the queen what women desired most was equality among them and their husband. the queen loved his answer. Unfortunately now he had to marry the ugly woman that gave him the answer. After their wedding day the ugly woman asked him why he was upset. The knight gave her a cold, cruel answer about how she was old and ugly and he didn't want to be in this marriage. She gave him 2 options. She could turn beautiful, but be unfaithful and not a good wife, or she would stay ugly and old, but be the most faithful and amazing wife there ever was. The knight was smart, though. He told her that the option was up to her and he'd except what she wanted. The old woman was so happy with this answer because he was showing her equality. Because of his perfect answer, she turned into a beautiful woman, but was still going to be faithful and the best wife ever.
This story is a lot like marriages today in the way of equality. Women and men today are a lot more equal in their marriages. Still today though, some marriages deal with lying and unfaithful partners like what the ugly woman could be like in the story. This story also shows that marriages have their complications, but they can compromise to make their marriage better. Obviously, you can magically turn into the person you want to be, but with compromise and understanding, as well as equality, a marriage can solve many problems.
This website gives the full story of "
The Woman of Bath", if anyone is interested in reading it. It was a very good story and worth reading!
