In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Tale, although it has a more serious and moral tone than her prologue, is in many ways a continuation of her prologue, the story and the way in which it is told being dominated by her personality, attitudes, and beliefs. The most obvious connecting link is the common theme – the sovereignty of women in marriage. In her prologue The Wife describes how she has devoted much of her life to living up to her unshakeable decision:
An housbonde I wol have, I wol nat lette,
Which shal be bothe my dettour and my thral (154-5)