night to find what every woman wants. If he returns after a year and a day without an answer, he loses his life. The Wyf is in a similar situation. Because she depends on men, living without one has the same effect on her, as losing her life. She goes on pilgrimages to meet men:thryes hadde she been at Jerusalem; She hadde passed many a strange streem; At Rome she hadde been, and at Boloigne, In Galice at Seint Jame, and at Coloigne(465)She is constantly searching, even whilst she is married. The knight travels from house to house in search of the answer to the queen’s question. When he doesn’t find the answer on his own, he must get help from an ugly woman, in return for husband in marriage. She forces him to settle for a woman he thinks to be “loothly and so old also”(WT 244). It is only after they are married and he gives in to the ugly woman that she becomes beautiful and they live happily ever after. The Wyf marries men like the knight. She will “no lenger in the bed abyde,/ If that I felte his arm over my syde,/ Til he had maad his raunson unto me”(WP 410). He must give in to her, leaving her in complete control of the marriage, before she makes him happy. Furthermore, the Wyf of Bathe’s aspirations parallel those of the queen in her tale. The queen is what the Wyf aspires to be. The queen is nobility, and the Wyf, although she can never be of noble blood, tries to make up for it with her appearance. She dresses up in new, fine clothing to appear rich, and noble. Because she will never have the power of the queen, she must be dominant in all her relationships, and always be in control. The Wyf also envies the queen’s marriage. Her husband, King Arthur, lets her make decisions. She appears to have a balanced marriage. The Wyf has not had a balanced, happy marriage. She will not allow her husband to have any control over her, and she feels the need ...
