Wife of Bath

How many times has the Wife of Bath been married?

• 3

• 4

• 5

• 6

How does a reference to Jesus attending a wedding at Cana cause the Wife of Bath to become angry?

• She realizes she is supposed to attend her cousin’s wedding that weekend and will never be back in time.

• She says Jesus turned the water into wine and the bread into fish, so she should be able to turn a poor husband into a prince.

• She says the biblical reference indicates the wife is supposed to be submissive, and she believes this is just wrong.

• She says the biblical reference indicates a person should only marry once in his or her lifetime. Since she has had more than one husband, she believes this statement is an accusation against her.

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The Pardoner interrupts the Wife of Bath after only a few pages of her prologue. What does he interject?

• He asks her to stop discussing biblical references because not everyone in the group is familiar with them and those who are not feel excluded.

• He tells her he was about to get married but is now having second thoughts because of her speech.

• He tells her he is a married man and hopes his wife never crosses paths with the “wisdom” of the Wife of Bath.

• He asks her to explain the part about the wedding at Cana again.

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The Wife of Bath believes intimate relations between a husband and wife exist for the purpose of

• procreating.

• urinating.

• controlling the husbands.

• pleasing the husbands.

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The main theme of her prologue is

• men should remain bachelors.

• women should be allowed to marry as often as they want even if the previous husband is not deceased.

• a woman should always marry for love.

• women in the know are able to control their husbands and that is the natural order in a marriage.

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What was wrong with the second to last husband?

• He cheated on her.

• He beat her.

• He died on their honeymoon.

• He worked all the time and neglected her.

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What was wrong with the last husband?

• He cheated on her.

• He was too strict and beat her.

• He died on their honeymoon.

• He traveled on business frequently.

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What did the last husband do in the latter part of their marriage?

• He continued to take on mistresses even though he knew it upset her.

• He beat her daily and eventually broke his hand on her head.

• He gave in to her wishes and asked her only to be true to his honor.

• He became submissive and allowed her to beat him for a change.

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Between the end of the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and the beginning of the Wife of Bath’s Tale is the Words between the Summoner and the Friar. What is the subject of this

brief interruption?

• The Summoner and the Friar applaud the Wife of Bath for her eloquent prologue.

• The Summoner expresses pleasure at the prologue, but the Friar says he dislikes it.

• The Friar mentions the length of the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and this causes the Summoner to rail against the Friar. They promise to offend each other greatly with their tales when the time comes.

• The Friar mentions the length of the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and this causes the Summoner to become angry. He leaps off his horse and drags the Friar down to the ground where the two of them fight until the Host separates them.

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At the beginning of her tale, the Wife of Bath makes an unkind remark about friars. She describes a setting a hundred years prior when fairies and elves roamed the

lands. Along came the friars and they chased away these magical creatures making the lands safe. How does she use this description to make a dig at the friars? She says women are now safe

• to walk alone because only the friars are about and the friars will only take a woman’s virtue, which is to say, rape her.

• to walk alone because the friars have chased away the fairies and elves that used to attack women and rape them.

• to walk in the woods because there is always a friar handy to escort one.

• to walk in the woods because the friars have set up a blockade for anything evil.

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