The Wyfe of Bath represents woman as a jolly, healthy, rounded personage. She is a sort of Dr. Ruth, in that she knows love's troubles and is willing to help out troubled souls. The Wyfe of Bath is the Nun's foil, in that she knows what she is and doesn't try to cover up and repress her sexuality. She "lets it all hang out" and revels in her sexuality. Chaucer uses the Wyfe of Bath to contradict the dehumanizing view of the women of his time. Women used to be put on a pedestal and admired, they were not to be touched and not to be soiled in any way. If women were virgins their whole lives they were admired, exalted, canonized and worshipped. Women would become martyrs for the protection of their "honor." Odes were made in the name of women, and Courtly Love was the new fad. In Courtly Love, a man would sing, write, and do everything in the name of a woman (preferably a married one) except bed her. One was NEVER to bed the woman one loved, mistresses fulfilled that purpose. I have no idea how women felt about this, but it's possible they were not at all pleased; who in their right mind would enjoy not getting to sleep with a handsome man who loved you? And they say women are a tease.
The Wyfe of Bath, on the other hand, is not repressing anything. She is not dowdy, beautiful, priggish, prudish, or anyone's servant. She makes no effort at hiding her sexual past, especially with men half her age, in fact she talks about it at length. She loves tumbles in the hay, and has been married five times- while actively looking for the sixth. She claims to have loved three of her husbands but explained for pages how she would tell the husbands she hated how bad they were. She was definitely the dominant wife. She pretended to be dead so her fifth husband would feel bad and do as she willed. The Wyfe of Bath knew what she wanted, how to get it, and often she did.
Physically, the...