ercept therof hadde he noon:Men may conseille a womman to been oon,But consellyng is no comandement.He putte it in oure owene juggement.For hadde God comanded maydenhedeThanne hadde he dampned wedding with the dede;And certes, if ther were no seed ysowe,Virginitee, thanne whereof sholde it growe?"She later asks where virginity would come from if no one gave up their virginity. Clearly, the wife of baths prologue is largely an argument in defense of her multiple marriages than an attempt to prove her idea that "if society was reorganized so that womens dominance was recognized, society would be much improved" (Williams, 72). Her prologue depicts women as "a commodity to be bought and used in marriage, one whose economic and religious task was to pay the debt in a society where al is for to selle" (Robertson, 209). However, she claims to have control over this process. For example, her first three husbands gave her economic security in exchange for the sexual use of her body. This "degradation of sexual life" in the culture is greatly evoked, and supported by the Churchs command to "pay the debt" (Robertson, 210). The wife of bath clearly rebels against male domination with regards to her first three husbands but still accepts the ways in which she survives economically. Overall, marriage for the Wife of Bath is much more than sexual pleasure; it provides her with a "vast sense of power in the exercise of her sovereignty; it makes her feel the godlike powers which the serpent promised Eve would follow the eating of the apple" (Rowland, 358). Through obstinacy, the wife of bath declares that a wife will achieve sovereignty in marriage, which is good for both, the wife and husband, as a womens sovereignty provides for peace. She also sees women as objects and commodities to be purchased, which is probably why she has such a great lack of respect for marriage.On the other hand, The Franklins Tale is one story which provides a tale a...
