'Wommen desiren to have sovereynetee/ As wel over her husband as hir love' (‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale, lines 1038-39) Discuss the relationship between women and love in Chaucer's 'The Wife of Bath's Tale'

Possible Essay Conclusion: In The Wife of Bath’s Tale, a Chaucer seemingly endorses traits such as beauty, innocence and passivity in female lovers. Yet, in a fine juggling act, he simultaneously deconstructs these values and promotes a libertarian world where women have possession over their narratives, their bodies and even the bodies of the men that court them. However, we cannot expect Chaucer to provide a complete account of how being a Medieval woman determined how you might love. It is easy to ascribe Chaucer an infallibility that he does not possess and is very far from possessing. In other works, he acknowledges the frailty of his examinations into romance; in the first poem of Troilus and Criseyde, he even betrays that he is not even widely versed in the nature of love, let alone gendered love, saying he 'Ne dar Love, for [his] unliklynesses,/ Preyen for speed'.