Striking Observations from the Wife of Bath's Tale

From Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales:

• The Wife of Bath shows us that women of the Middle Ages could actually be a force to be reckoned with--not just a pretty face, a passive housewife, or a damsel in distress.

• I've actually met women in my own life just like the wife of Bath. They were confident, self-centered, and talkative, yet interesting and alluring.

Once again, The Canterbury Tales shows us that history changes the world but human nature stays the same. In the 21st century we still have the same jealousies, sympathies, personalities, and social ordering. The setting is different of course. Now we have the Internet, air conditioning, and auto-tune, for example, but human nature is the same.

Reference:
Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales. ca. 1390. Trans. Burton Raffel. Modern Library. 2008.