Judith talks in length about her five marriages and search for a sixth husband to the pilgrims without any provocation before the beginning of her story, which is one example of her overwhelming need for attention. She also goes on to share vivid details of each relationship, hoping for a “shock factor” effect from her audience, who by the end of her introduction are not especially shocked but remark on how long it took for her to introduce her story. “The friar laughed when he had heard all of this. ‘Now dame,’ said he, ‘so have I joy or bliss. This is a long preamble to a tale!" The pilgrims she shares all of these details with could, in a modern setting, very easily be co-workers in an office, strangers in an elevator, fellow passengers on a subway ride home, etc… Chaucer’s character is modern because we all know people like Judith who share their life story with us, seemingly for no apparent reason. The reason is, however, that the storyteller is trying to get the attention of whomever they are telling the story to. Judith gets the attention of her audience, but almost goes too far because they are clearly ready for her to move on. By examining the details she provided in her introduction, the reader can better understand the characters she creates in her tale.
The hag is an older and physically unattractive version of Judith, who uses her knowledge and wiles to gain power over the knight, instead of sex. Judith professes to have triumphed over many of her husbands by the use of her body, knowing that she is a voluptuous and voracious woman. “Upon his flesh, the while I am his wife. I have the power during all my life. Over his own good body, and not he.“ In her tale she invents a hag who has no such recourse,
