Wife of Bath

        I found the difference in tone the wife took in telling the story of her first three husbands as compared to her last two a very important technique chaucer used to reveal the character and give her more depth.  In talking of her first three marriages she takes a very proud, arrogant tone when speaking of using them, about tricking them and toying with them.  She seems to take no shame in it whatsoever, and even uses scripture to justify it.  But when she gets to her fourth husband she seems to finally be having emotional reactions to the memories she is recalling.  She becomes argumentative at times, and gets lost in her story.  And with the fifth husbands we finally see her in a truly vulnerable state.  She boasted that her prowess could get her any man, and she could not control the only one she loved.  She admits her age is beginning to wear on her.  The marriage ends in violence and a truce and after she is finished recanting the tale we see her lash out at the way women are treated in this society, giving different explanations for it.  I think it is here that we get to see the full range of this character.  From arrogance to sadness to defensiveness.

     My question is of whether or not we can believe this character in the way she speaks of what she has done.  Is she really proud and feeling no remorse?  It feels like a front, and a slow breakdown to the way she truly feels about her life as the story goes on.  Also, when the man she is confessing to talks of his own marriage, she essentially says "wait and she if I answer your question".  were any of his questions answered?