Sexual Independence in Chaucer’s the Wife of Bath’s Tale

If we look at Chaucer’s Wife of Bath’s tale from the perspective of its deviation from the original Arthurian romances, and assume that the tales sprang from an earlier common source, we can better understand the social commentary Chaucer was making at the time. Chaucer’s tale deviates from it’s sources in one key area: the idea of female sovereignty. This paper discusses the deviations in Chaucer’s tale from the original romance tales, and the implications of those deviations.