In response to the knights’ superficial complaints on their wedding night she speaks of the truth about poverty; she believes that real poverty lies in covetousness and real riches lie in having little and wanting nothing. This ideology presented in the wife of baths tale surprises us because it is coming from a woman whose bright clothes and elaborate headdress ("coverchiefs") are ostentatious rather than elegant. Her clothes are of good quality "fyn scarlet reed" and her shoes are "moiste and newe": the effect is perhaps to advertise herself and her wealth. Furthermore, one of the wife’s confessed principles of life is to attain as much wealth as possible. Even though the wife of bath’s tale can be interpreted as a continuation of her prologue she adopts a more serious and moral tone in the narration of the tale. The chief difference in the approach of the two wives is that whereas The Wife argues her beliefs almost entirely on personal grounds, The poor woman in the tale argues to a large extent on the more objective and moralistic grounds of living up to the claim of 'Nobility’.
Based even just on her introduction via the Prologue to the Wife of Bath’s Tale, it appears from the onset that The Wife of Bath simply uses her sexual attributes for personal gain instead of trying to prove her equal status. In general, this female character stereotype could be seen as a parody of sorts since she embodies a number of negative female characteristics including stupidity and arrogance; deceitfulness, and lewdness. Although she is striking back at men it does not seem to be for any deeper reason other than personal profit. However even though the essence of the tale comes into conflict with these characteristics we can see how the wife’s tale is more then appropriate for the Prologue. On the exterior The Wife maybe self-centered, manipulative and harsh the tale helps us see that she is only human. Her sensitivity about her weaknesses begins to show through, and, as she reveals psychological depth, she becomes a more realistic, sympathetic, and compelling character. If this balance did not exist then the audience would not be able to relate to the narrator, nor would they be tolerant of her high held views on sexuality and marriage.
The lines on poverty may come into contrast with the tough rhetoric and fast-paced criticism in the wife’s prologue it is able to demonstrate the wife’s views of her own insecurities; that after four husbands she has aged and yet has not truly loved but when she finds her fifth husband she is willing to whole heartedly throw herself into another relationship but finds herself inadequate because she has already made it clear that her youthful spirit and beauty has more or less disappeared. Even though the desire for sovereignty in a relationship is still evident in both the wives, the means to achieve it have become more moralistic and sophisticated.
The idea’s presented in her arguments have a logical flow. She starts very softly with a strong comparison between the virtues of being poor with a historical figure who is believed to encompass all that is good in people. She does not force her beliefs on the listener but instead she makes her point more objective by making her statement independent of the individual: “The hye God, on whom that we bileeve”. Through the use of the phrase “hye God” she has attatched sacredness to what she is proclaiming and the use of the word “we” makes it evident that this is not an indoctrination of her personal beliefs but simply a reiteration of a belief that both parties hold. Through this she has shown substantial references to indicate that the very thing she is defending, poverty, exists among the best of us.
