How does Chaucer use satire in "The Wife of Bath's Tale"?

pokes fun
at human weaknesses or social issues. Focusing on the tale itself, we could pick out two social
issues it pokes fun at and undermines: the first is male intellectual superiority; the second is
the assumption that the male should be in charge of the household.

The tale
begins with a knight raping a woman. Though he is condemned to death, Queen Guinevere stands up
for him, and as result, he is given a year and a day to find the answer to the following
question: what do women most desire?

Although men are supposed to be more
intelligent than women, the knight can't come with the answer. He asks women far and wide and
gets so many different answers that a year later he is still confused. He doesn't seem to have
the critical thinking skills to discern what underlying thread holds the answers together.
Finally, on the last day, he desperately promises to give a wise old woman whatever she wants in
return for the answer.

She tells him that what women most want is to rule
over...