The Wife of Bath: Professional Wife or Something Else? The Wife of Bath is a character described by the narrator, Geoffrey Chaucer, in a way that makes her appear as though she is only after pleasure. In the prologue the Wife of Bath is described as “having a gap in her teeth” and she is said to be wearing “red stockings.” Through the use of these descriptions the Wife of Bath becomes a character that is interested in one thing only which she later confesses in her tale. The narrator also describes her as someone who gets angry at women who get to the altar before her, which could mean she wants people to see how faithful she is, or she wants to make sure she is always the first one people see and remember.Through this description the reader …show more content…
This also becomes ironic as the characterization for the wife makes her appear to be a scandalous woman rather than an actual wife that is faithful to her husband. Another striking image is found in her gap teeth, which symbolizes her eagerness to partake in worldly pleasures, and the gap provides a significant showing of the Wife of Bath’s lack of true faith. Through her story, it becomes increasingly apparent that her appetite is something more carnal than that of some of the other pilgrims as she is shown to be exactly what the narrator takes her for as he goes on to describe as a woman that has all the necessary requirements [I.E gap teeth, scarlet hoses, big hat, etc.] to be in the “escort” profession. With this idea in the reader’s head, the wife can be seen for what she is as her description goes on to state that she has had five different husbands in her life, but she considered herself to be faithful as she has traveled to famous pilgrimage sites of that time. Yet despite her claim to faith, it can be found that she likes the worldly pleasures more as the prologue states “...and knew the remedies for love’s mischances, an art in which she knew the oldest