The Flawed Yet Admirable Dame Alice The Wife of Bath, also known as Dame Alice, is a very well-known character is Chaucer’s story, “The Canterbury Tales”. She is mainly known for her immense amount of individuality and the large number of husbands she had wedded in the past. She would also openly tell people that she would lie and trick to men to get what she wanted. This made her stick from the rest of the group in the story. Alice was never afraid to speak her mind nor cared what other’s opinions were. Many may think of the Wife of Bath as a harlot, however; even though she flawed, Alice was an admirable woman, especially when considering the time period she lived in. In “The Canterbury Tales” the everyone characters in the story are all primarily men. Dame Alice, however, does not let herself get lost in the background. Her tale even prologue are all intriguing and tell a lot about who she is as a person. She stands out among else and does not let others step on her. Alice, being a very good arguer, would justify certain actions by using her interpretation of the Bible. She is very intelligent and will defend herself if and when needed. While some of Alice’s behavior was morally questionable at times, being able to protect one’s own beliefs was no easy task back then. The Wife of Bath’s strong will …show more content…
The Wife of Bath never cared for how people viewed or thought of her. Her belief, to put it simply, was “if men can do it, why can’t I?” Alice wanted to be the dominate figure in the relation, to have as much sex as she wanted, and to remarry without worrying about a thing. With the story taking place in the 14th century, this was basically unheard of at this time. Women were basically supposed to stay home, to do what their husbands said, and to avoid remarrying. However, Bath had always been one to go outside of the social norm at that point in