Chaucer portrays the Wife of Bath in many different aspects. When we are first introduced to her, Chaucer says, ‘A good Wif was ther of biside Bathe/ But she was somdel deef, and that was scathe.’ He says that she was a good wife of bath but she was deaf and it was a pity. He does not expand on this or explain why she is deaf but we learn, at a later time how she became deaf.

Chaucer describes the Wife as, ‘Boold was hir face, and fair, and reed of hewe.’  He explains that she was bold of face but fair and had red hair. We are also given a description of what manner of woman she is because we are told that she ‘She was a worthy womman al hir live: / Housbondes at chirche dore she hadde five.’ This could be interpreted that the Wife of Bath does not like to be on her own but it could also be interpreted that she does not value her marriages or even marriage itself. It also says, ‘Gat-tothed was she, soothly for to seye.’ The Wife of Bath is said to be gap-toothed, but in the fourteenth century, men were seen to be attracted by this as it made women look promiscuous.

When the Wife of Bath starts to discuss her opinions on different issues we begin to see that she likes to manipulate things – including religious texts – for her own gain or she uses texts that can be interpreted in different ways to meet her own needs and likes to be in control.

An example of her manipulation over texts would be, ‘What rekketh me, thogh folk seye vileynie/ Of shrewed Lameth and his bigamie? / I woot well Abraham was an hooly man, / And Jacob eek, as ferforth as I kan.’ From this we can also see that she has a passion for her arguments but even though she has this passion we don’t always believe that she believes her argument herself. She is incoherent in her speeches but this shows how garrulous she is. She likes to challenge people to find evidence against her arguments which shows us that she is dominant in her field of experience of marriage. However, event though she believes she is right about the things she says, this is not always the case, as previously shown. Her erratic speech shows us this.

An example of her interpretations of texts – and sometimes seen as her misinterpretations of texts – is shown when she talks about marriage and having more than one wife/husband. ‘Lo, here, the wise king, daun Salomon; / I trowe he hadde wives mo than oon. / As wolde God it were leveful unto me/ To be refressed half so ofte as he!’ She chooses her religious texts because this brings out a religious nature to the pilgrimage that they are on.

Chaucer also portrays the Wife of Bath as a very assertive woman when it comes to talking about men and sex. ‘An housbonde I wol have, I wol nat lette, / Which shal be bothe my detour and my thrall.’ She says that she will have a husband, no one will stop her and he shall be her slave and pay rightful dues. The Wife, however, is reserved when she talks about how her husbands were worn out trying to satisfy her sexual needs. ‘Unnethe mighte they the statut holde / In which that they were bounden unto me. / Ye woot wel what I meene of this, pardee.’ This – in a way – can show that she is a man-eater because the men that have become her husbands are struggling to satisfy her and she has had five husbands and is already looking for a sixth.

Critics are divided on the personality of the Wife of Bath. Some see her as a strong independent woman while others regard her as a terrible old harridan. This latter view is helped by potential hints in the text that she may have murdered her fourth husband. A significant body of modern literary criticism regards the Wife of Bath as attacking the substantial body of antifeminist literature known by the later Middle Ages, though these critics are cognisant of the fact that feminism, as a distinct political and intellectual movement, did not emerge until the nineteenth century. Chaucer was taking inspiration from a significant amount of misogynist literature around at the time but it is subject to debate whether he is copying these sentiments or slyly lampooning them.

However, with her fifth husband, the Wife of Bath changes in herself. She talks kindly of him and she does not want his soul to go to hell – ‘God lete his soule nevere come in helle!’ She tells the reader that she loved him best out of all her husbands but she also tells us that he was sometimes cruel to her. ‘That thogh he hadde me bete on every bon.’

When we hear of her fifth husband, we notice the change of roles between them and see a change in the Wife of Bath. We do not see her as a man-eating monster but a woman who is only trying to keep her husbands affections. Even though we see this change, we do not see a complete change in the Wife of Bath’s behaviour. She still behaves as she did before when the balance between the Wife of Bath and Jankin is restored but she does not learn from the past events. They respect each other more but the Wife of Bath still has dominant control over him. ‘And whan that I hadde geten unto me, / By maistrie, al the soverainetee, / And that he seyde, “Myn owene trewe wyf, / Do as thee lust the terme of al thy lyf; / Keep thyn honour, and keep eek myn estaat” –’ He told her that she could do whatever she wanted to as long as it did not hurt or damage his social status.

There is certainly an element of a ‘talkative, man-eating monster of a woman’ in the Wife of Bath but she is not this completely. The Wife of Bath is viewed as talkative because she consistently reinforces her issues when discussing them. She can also be seen as talkative because she likes the sound of her own voice but this, then, reinforces an issue of her being seen as a man-eating monster because she does not want to be lonely as she gets older. She will not learn from her mistakes when choosing her husbands but she can be seen to like the company and having men please her for being herself. She tries to make a stand for the less attractive women because she knows that she is getting old herself and men may not want her anymore. ‘And that no wys man nedeth for to wedde, / Ne no man that entendeth unto hevene. / With wilde thonder-dint and firy levene / Moote thy welked nekke be tobroke!’