What Women Most Desire
In "The Wife Of Bath’s Tale", women most desire sovereignty over men in relationships. In other words, the power to have dominance over men is the one thing women most desire. I agree with the ideas that in relationship women wish to be dominant over the opposite sex. The only way such power is earned or give is when the man is in a situation where the woman must bail him out of trouble.
Women have the ability to get what they want, when they want it. Chaucer portrays the Wife of bath as the dominant person in her marriages. She looks at men as her trinkets to be used and played with. She moves from one man to another, always looking for more. The Wife of Bath is a control freak, wanting to have sex when she desires it and with whom she desires.
Her tale discusses a knight desperate for an to the question, what do women most desire? The answer is in the hands of an old lady who is described as an ugly, horrid fowl creature. In return for the answer the decrepit woman wants the knight to marry her. The knight has no choice and marries the hag. The knight was truly the one with no power and the hag was holding all the cards.
The knight is in a lose-lose situation without the answer he was to be beheaded. The knight repulsed and angry married the hag. He was probably thinking that death by decapitation might have been the better than to live with the same old, ugly woman for the rest of his god-forsaken life.
The knight in the tale had no choice but to submit to the sovereignty of the old hag. If the knight was a little smarter and did his homework in trying to say, "Hey, how does this old hag know the answer to what women most desire? She’s probably never been with a man before!" The knight was foolishly tricked and deceived into an agreement with the hag. Of course the answer given would be the right because the old hag is the advisor to the queen whom the knight had to give the answer to. It is true that in a relationship women do desire dominance over man, but it is up to the man know what he is getting into.