During The Wife of Baths Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer, the featured knight breaches the unspoken

code of chivalry on numerous occasions. First, the knight robs a lone maiden of her virtue. In doing
so, he breaks the section of the code that states a knights duty to uphold the honour of woman; he
not only violated the maidens dignity but displayed his lack of respect towards woman and their
honour. Yet, once the knight had been granted a miraculous reprieve from his crime, he had the
audacity to complete his new task (given by the Queen) half heartedly. The knight happened to
stumble upon an old lady in a forest that promised to give him what he needed to complete his task if
he would give her anything she asked for once his life was spared. The knight agreed upon his very
honour but found himself more than reluctant when the time came to grant her request. The old
woman wanted to marry the knight and would be satisfied with nothing less. He responded rudely
and tried to convince her to choose something else. This was a clear display of the knight going back
on his honour, another way in which he failed to uphold the code of chivalry. When the old woman
would not be swayed, they were married regardless of his feelings. Upon being questioned by his
wife on their wedding night he responded harshly youre old, and so abominably plain, / so poor to
start with, so low bred-bred to follow. The knight judged his wife based on her appearance and
worse, her social status. The code of chivalry calls for knights to reject unfairness and meanness but
the knight could not grant that simple courtesy to his wife. After all, it was not her fault that she was
plain or a commoner. In addition, he was harsh with his words, displaying his willingness to act
meanly. Any man that can refer to his future marriage as so foul a misalliance is clearly
uninterested in eschewing meanness. Further, the Queen had asked the knight to seek and
learn/sufficient answer of what women wanted most. Instead of discovering the answer for
himself, he knocked at every house, searched every place and never once put in true effort for a
task that was to save his life. Not putting in the full effort to complete his task surely proved that the
knight was not living by honour, another way in which he broke the code of chivalry but worse he
was deceiving the Queen. The knight did not truly learn the answer, he just cowardly regurgitated
words to save his life. He directly disobeyed his sovereign and broke the code of chivalry once
again. The Queen did not ask him to listen to what woman most desired, she asked him to learn it.
The answer to the question and the true meaning behind it was not something the knight learned of
until his wife beat it into his by upstaging him with both grace and knowledge. In conclusion, the
knight in The Wife of Baths Tale was not chivalrous or worthy of being hailed as a knight.