"" The Wife of Bath wants the free dinner as much as anyone else. She postures, she pronounces, she plays out the challenge of Host, Pardoner, Friar, and Clerk alike."" Hagan adds to the comparison by stating, "Her [The Wife of Bath] opening number might be "Express Yourself," but her method is to vogue, to strike a pose, whether it be the reprobate feminine exegete, the insatiable Venusian, the shrewish wife, the jealous wife, or the loving wife- (Hagan 2001). .
The Wife of Bath also tells a tale of a knight and an old woman with the moral that man and wife will be happiest if the woman is given the power in the relationship. These power struggles occurred in past eras and continue even now. What woman today with a controlling husband would prefer to be in charge, and vice versa? Thus, lifestyles conceivably change over time, but the basic power struggles between man and wife virtually stay the same. .
The Clerk, who is traveling on the pilgrimage as well, tells the well-known tale of patient Griselda. This same tale was told four times in the mid-fourteenth century by Boccaccio, Chaucer, Petrarch, and Menagier. Griselda is a noble image of a woman full of loyalty and endurance for emotional pain. Her husband Walter, the king, tests her several times by taking away her children and sending her back to be a peasant as she was prior to coming to the castle. In the end Walter brings back Griselda's children and reveals the truth. Griselda is joyous and they all "live happily ever after."" The Clerk states at the end of his tale, "It isn't easy to find Griseldas round the town, you know- (372). He basically says that it would not be easy to find women who exist possessing characteristics similar to Griselda, but they are there. It is the equivalent in the society of today. There are few women who devote themselves entirely to their husbands, but they are out there; they do exist. .
Another aspect of The Clerk's Tale, which can compare the fourteenth century and society of today, is the marriage of two people, one being of the lowest social class and one being of the highest social class.
