The Wife of Bath’s Prologue is by far the longest prologue of the Canterbury Tales. Though lengthy is her description, the self-portrait provided is not nearly as clear-cut as that of the other characters. However, the underlying theme of this prologue reveals itself to be an account of the trials of marriage. Basing her description out of her own experience and speaking apart from the authority of the Bible, the Wife with her five …showed first 75 words of 677 total…

…showed last 75 words of 677 total…the tale is representative of the Wife finally receiving sovereignty through her last husband. Overall, the old woman symbolizes the Wife and the trials she has been through within her life and marriages. The knight is in some way a figure of the last of the Wife’s husbands and also, he is illustrative of the fact that what she (the Wife) sought for in a mate was given to her by this last companion.