In the satirical comedy The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer introduces Dame Alice (whom is known as "The Wife of Bath") as an obstinate, energetic and opinionated woman. In addition, she is promiscuous and filled with sexual desire. Throughout her prologue she is depicted as a determined feminist who continuously argues against the belittling of women and forbidden female sexuality. Chauffer uses her tale to add humor to his works because a feminist of her kind at that period time was highly unlikely. The theme of her tale is not female equality in marriage, but instead the power struggles between husband and wife. She doesn't look for an equal partnership with her spouse, but rather a state in which she has control over her husband, and her marriage history portrays this idea perfectly.
In The Wife of Bath's lifetime she has gone through five husbands (the first four had died and she was still married to the fifth at the time, and was open minded to a sixth). In all of her marriages she manipulated her husbands and used her sexuality as a weapon against them in order to get what she wanted, which was the upper-hand. She dominated the marriages and had control over the economics, the sexual pleasure, and maneuvered the relationship to her likings. This was contrary to the submissive, obedient, proper, and inferior role that women played in the Middle Ages. Legally, women could do nothing without their husbands, and did not even exist other than as their husbands" property. Even sex could technically only be preformed for procreation, not enjoyment (i.e. lust). The Wife of Bath's first three husbands were old and rich, and were willing to do what she wished. In order to get them on the defensive when they got suspicious of her stepping out, she would criticize and accuse them of looking at other women. The fourth husband she married was actually young and harder to control. He possessed a mistress as well as a wife, and shared similar qualities to those of The Wife of Bath.
