The Wife of Bath's Prologue is a humorous and a rambling account of a woman who tries to stretch religious and social boundaries to assess the role of men and women in society and marriage. Chaucer gives no names to any of the major characters because he uses them to symbolize each gender as a whole. The Wife of Bath's Prologue is written from an autobiographical point of view. The prologue itself is very personal and twice the length of the tale that follows it. It is not coincidental but is done intentionally by Chaucer to characterize the egotistical wife who is intent on gloating and glorifying her deceitful actions. The "five husbands she schooled" and the "riches" she gains through tricking them. As a reflection upon women as a whole, Chaucer intentionally lengthens the prologue to show the self-centered, egotistical characterization of the wife as a deceitful...