After her son died, again because of the societal expectations, she had to remarry. It would not be good to be a single woman at her age. She however, did not want to be put into a marriage, so instead she decided to choose her husband. The shock was not necessarily in the choosing of a husband, it was in the person chosen. He was poor and from a lower social class. Giovanna however, had the last word, and she married her second husband and was rich because of the money her first husband had left her. The Wife of Bath's marriage was essentially what ended up defining her true person. She was perceived as an old hag and her husband did...
However, because of their agreement, he had an obligation to. Because of the husband she chose, she was able to transform into who she really was capable of becoming, "a fair maiden." He too had given the Wife of Bath a choice, which was a very powerful notion during the Medieval time period. It was their marriages that allowed each character to develop.
Monna Giovanna and the Wife of Bath both portray female character's that were both iconic and symbolic during the Medieval time period. Even though both Giovanna and the Wife of Bath fulfilled their female roles, they were far from just being subordinate. Their beauty affected the outcome of their lives and it was their marriages that ultimately defined who these
women became.
