“Sovereignty” or believing that a happy match is one in which the wife has control is the backbone to the story of the . When the wife of bath finishes telling her story there are no comments from the other pilgrims. The thoughts of both the parson and the knight will be depicted as I imagine them to be in response to her tale. I can see the parson looking to his left, explaining his displeasures to the monk.
They talk of her story with the parson sharing his ideals, and the monk just smiling back, looking him in the eye and chuckling. The parson who attempts to live his life as an ideal for others was appalled to learn of the wife of baths four husbands and as she told how she gained control over the fifth one by faking her death, the parson lost all religious respect for her. The parson hates to think, and totally disagrees with her theory that being over powered by a woman would make any marriage happy, personally he would be unhappy, and would never be with a woman who didn’t fallow the word of god… The parson would have wanted the knight who raped the woman instead of becoming the hero of tale, to be punished in order to be fair to the others who have been punished before him. The knight whose very code of honor emphasizes chivalry, truth and honor would be totally disgusted to hear that in the tale by the wife of bath that a knight raped women. He would be angry at the wife for choosing a knight when any type of person could be chosen to represent the male in her tale.
This talk of a woman dominated house hold would not be something that would be a ideal to the manly knight whose dignity and status allow him to stand apart from the rest. The wife of baths history as a person would make him think twice about anything she had to say, as she has little honor but what she lacks in honor she makes up with in pride. The tale ends with a knights ending they live happily ever after. The knight would have no problem with most of the story although be aggravated by pessimistic rhetoric of his fellow knights. Question 3 “Love of money is the root of all evil” is a lesson that we could all learn in addition to the theme of the pardoner’s tale.
When the Pardoners tale is done the reaction of the other pilgrims is not shown. The thoughts of both Hubert, the friar and the merchant will be depicted as I imagine them to be in response to the pardoner’s tale of money and fate. Hubert the friar enjoyed the tale. The talk of money kept him interested. He would agree that money is the root of all evil, but then also say that that’s why he loves it.
The friar would feel that when the three men who had set out for death, what they found was what they were looking for death. The merchant would think react with a similar voice as the friar did. He would disregard the story from the beginning. He personally wouldn’t like the Pardoner just because he’s not a good guy but while not being a good guy he can tell a good story. The merchant respects the story although believes it to be a dumb tale to tell when looking to get a free dinner at the end of the trip.