The Wife of Bath's Fourth and Fifth Husbands and Her Ideal Sixth: The Growth of Marital Philosophy

Author / Editor
Burton, T. L.

Title
The Wife of Bath's Fourth and Fifth Husbands and Her Ideal Sixth: The Growth of Marital Philosophy

Published
Chaucer Review 13 (1978): 34-50.

Description
Dame Alice embodies the "bossy woman" who wishes to be mastered in bed, demands freedom outside it, but only finds her ideal in fantasy. Her fourth husband failed to master her in bed; the fifth refused her freedom outside it; only the knight in WBT offers the perfect combination.

Chaucer Subjects
Wife of Bath and Her Tale.