Chaucer's the Prologue : Outline the characters of the five husbands; how has she responded to each?

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The Wife of Bath –Husbands analysis

Outline the characters of the five husbands; how has she responded to each?

The Wife of Bath claims that three of her husbands were good and two of them were bad. The three that were good men were rich and old and they were not able to satisfy her in bed. She finds it amusing when she remembers how she tired them out (lines 201-202) “I laughe whan I thynke how pitously a nyght I made hem swynke”

They gave her all their wealth and so she felt that she no longer had a need to be diligent with the (205) “me neded nat do longer diligence” She made them work so hard for her on many nights that she heard them crying “weilawey” (216)

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She disclosed how she (219-220) governed them by her own law and that each was blissful. Yet she nagged at them mercilessly. We get the impression that she only liked these husbands for their wealth. She didn’t truly love nor desire them either. She even admits pretending to have a sexual appetite for them (416-417) “And make me a feyned appetite” as she didn’t take delight in “bacon” meaning old meat which she compares her husbands to. She would also make herself so awkward with these husbands that they would just give up (427) “that they moste yeve it up, ...

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