Do the Wife of Baths Prologue and Tale find ways of transcending the misogyny they confront?

The Wife of Bath is one of, if not the most, memorable characters of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer. Her crudity, sexual voraciousness and general larger than life quality make her a timeless character, and make her Prologue and Tale the attention of a lot of criticism and commentary. A large part of that attention is directed towards the misogyny that the text confronts in the society of the time it is set in, especially as feminism is such a prevailing literary approach now, modern readers often find it difficult to look past the medieval misogyny, on to the various other interesting components that transcend gender issues.

Within the Wifes rant about men and their misogyny, she also discusses an issue that was highly prevalent in the middles ages: the unyielding and intrusive authority of the church. She criticises their rulings and attitudes as an institution against …(short extract)