The wife of Bath

"The wife of Bath" consists in a description of one of the characters of the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. The text follows the typical rhyming scheme AABB of the Canterbury Tales.

Right from the start, that reminds a fairy tale, the narrator catches the reader's attention in the second line ("more's the pity") because the reader cannot understand the view of the narrator about the woman.

The adjective "deaf" in line 2 reduces the attention of the woman while in line 3 and 4 she is described as the best weaver of England and Flanders. The ellipsis in line 3 focuses the attention on her job and her great skills. From line 5 to line 8 the narrator makes the reader understand she was not interested in the almsgiving but to seem charitable. This is the start of the ironic description of the woman.

The inversion in line 7 underlines the greatness of her anger. The superlative in line 9 makes the reader understand she was quite rich but the inversion and the hyperbole ("ten pounds") in line 10 make the woman seem ridiculous. The adjectives "scarlet red" and "very tightly laced" of her stockings are in great clash with the place she wore them, giving the idea of a woman who did not followed the rules of the Church. The inversion and the ellipsis in line 14 underline her beauty.  

Line 15 seems to be very contrasting with the general description, it is very ironic as the reader can understand in the following lines where irony changes in a less and less concealed accusation that reaches its peak in line 23 ("straying").

The lines from 19 to 23 make clear she is not really interested in religion but only in having sexual relationship with other people which is underlined in line 31 and 32. Line 25 and 26 underline that she did not care about the spiritual part of going on pilgrimage that is emphasized by the inversion in line 25.  

The hyperbole in line 27 and irony in line 29 add ridiculousness to her figure but in the description there are many lines that underline her beauty (lines 14, 24, 28). The last three lines underline the materialism of her figure.