Chaucer and Women

The tale of The Wife of Bath is complex. A story of trying to figure out what women want is going to be a story that will end with a unsatisfying end. The part of the story that i want to focus on is the end. The Knight and his wife have my full attention. the wife just breaks the situation down to him and tells him basically that he doesn't live up to what he is suppose to be. he keeps screaming how she is ugly and all he wants is a beautiful wife. now he can have a beautiful wife but that wife would never do what his current wife is doing. She spoke her peace and gave her husband a reality check. You're suppose to be a Knight, the best of the best and all you worried about is the way your wife looks.  with the language i read it as, if you want to leave then leave i will be fine. i didn't get the sense of her begging him to stay.  I would think that a wife in this time would have took the verbal abuse and tried to please him in any way. I love this tale because it reminds me of the women in my life. To me Chaucer is not criticizing the women in the time period but how others see women. All they want is freedom and have fun. i slightly agree with this because all they do is clean, work in the house and tend to their husbands and children. I am glad he put this into the story, because he focuses on how men think and he put the female in a positive light.