Alberto Ceja

Ms. Figueroa

Senior English 1

14 December 2018

How Chaucer Defines Love

In the Wife of Bath tale Chaucer presents an important value with a question what do

women desire the most? Geoffrey Chaucer was the “father of literature” the first to write in

English. He wrote about the people for the people. Chaucer born around 1343 lived until 1400.

In the Wife of Bath, a king sends a Knight to the Queen to decide a punishment for the knight.

The Queen tells the knight he must find the answer for what do women desire? In order to live.

The knight then finds the answer form an old crone but ends up marrying the crone. While being

with the crone unhappy he later learns a valuable lesson. Chaucer defines love by having the

Knight give sovereignty to the old Crone and both living happily ever after.

Chaucer defines love as something that can only be identified when two people are

equally to each other. For an example, when the Knight refused to love the old Crone until he is

asked a question. The crone asked the knight, “Would you rather have me old and poor and

homely and come of common folk, but a faithful, loving wife; or, perchance, young and rich and

handsome and of high birth, but careless of your love and maybe false to you” (Chaucer 3). The

knight ponders and responds, “I believe that you are wise and good, and I take you for my tree

and faithful wife” (Chaucer 4). Now that the knight had his mindset changed the knight and the

Crone are in love. Chaucer states, “Unto the last day of their lives they lived in peace and

happiness” (Chaucer 4). This explains that once two pairs are equally to each other good things
will happened. The Knight and the Crone equally care for each other and live happily ever after

which is how Chaucer defines love.

Chaucer defines love by having the Knight give sovereignty to the old Crone and live

happily ever after because he accepts her the way she is. Therefore, learning what women most

desire was important from reading this tale. Also learning how Chaucer defined love by having

the Crone and the knight getting together eventually. Chaucer believed that women most desire

is power. A reader can learn that beauty lies within the human, not just physical attributes.
Works Cited