The Wife of Bath – READING GUIDE
CLASS SET
The Wife of Bath is a woman from the town of Bath, and one of the pilgrims in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Use the
following questions to guide your reading and understanding of the story she tells.
WIFE OF BATH’S PROLOGUE
1. The ___________________________ needs advice on _____________________, so he asks the Wife of Bath for
help.
2. Why is the Wife of Bath qualified to give advice on this matter?
WIFE OF BATH’S TALE
3. In the first part of her tale, the Wife of Bath seems to be speaking indirectly about the friar that is travelling with
the group. How does she seem to feel about the friar?
4. What creatures from King Arthur’s time does the Wife of Bath claim that friars replaced?
5. After the knight in her story (not the knight from the prologue) rapes the beautiful maiden, what is his sentence?
6. What chance is the knight given to escape beheading?
7. What are some of the answers that the knight receives as he goes around England looking for the answer to his
challenge? List at least three.
8. What does the knight discover to be the correct answer to the question?
9. What price does the knight pay for having the elderly hag save his life?
10. How does this "price" turn out not to be so costly, after all?
11. What makes the outcome of this story ironic?
12. How is allusion used in the Wife of Bath's Tale? What is the effect?
13. Do you think the knight gives the hag the answer that he does because he believes it is true, or because he knows
that she wants to be in control, and is simply answering strategically? Why?
14. Did any good ultimately come from the knight’s sentence? Why or why not?
15. Bear in mind that Chaucer was a man, writing a story from the perspective of a woman (the Wife of Bath), and
that men and women have a long history of not fully understanding one another. Do you think that being in
control of a relationship is really what women want most? Why or why not?