With in this quote she explained what she had to do in order to have mastery over him. Through out her prologue the humor of it turns out to be largely at her own expense, although she never realizes this. Her addiction to mastery in marriage is a damp squib for the only husband she really loved beat her and treated her with disdain. (Cigman, 7). The prologue ends in the state of marital happiness, reassertion her doctrine of mastery of husbands by the wife ( Cigman, 14). In her tale on the other hand she tells a different story about how she won mastery over her husband. Her view on faithfulness and nobility and Gentilesse are explained in her tale. In the tale one of King Arthur’s knights sees a young girl and rapes her. For his action he is condemned to death, but the Queen intercedes for him and proposes a reprieve of a year and a day that he must find an answer to a question that she tells. It he brings back the correct answer he will live, otherwise he must die. The question is “What do women most desire?” The knight begins his long journey; he travels far and wide to find an answer to the question. He comes across many answers to the question, but none of the answers seem to be the right ones. Time was running out and the knight starts to travel back to the court when he runes in to an old ugly women. The old women learned about his problem and promises to provide a satisfactory answer if he will fulfill the first request that she makes of him (Howard, 142). The knight agrees so they go back to the court and provide the ladies of the court with the answer. The court accepts the answer so he is free to live, however he still needs to fulfill his promise to the old lady. The old lady request marriage of the knight, because of the fact that the old lady is ugly and old the knight dose not want to marry her. The knight owes her this favor so he ends up marrying her. The knight show no affection to...
