The Wife's appearance in the play can be drawn from the short portrait in the general prologue. This gives the reader a fair indication as to what the character would look like and prepare us for her extravagant taste in clothes and her manner of speaking. Chaucer's comments on the Wife's dress indicate her extravagance in clothing in what we must assume was the accepted fashion for the rich or well off of the day. His comments also prepare the reader for her allusion to her wardrobe of "gaye scarlet gites", which moths had no opportunity of spoiling. .
Her cloths are only one part of her "rich" and extravagant image, which she thinks becomes her. The Wife's spaced teeth and her faulty hearing are also picked up by Chaucer who mentions them in the portrait, but leaves it to the wife to later claim that they are becoming of her. He mentions her complexion and how it is "boold and fair, and reed of hewe" which insinuates itself through the Wife's energetic manner of speaking. Her complexion gives her the image of someone flushed and hot from speaking, it also hints at her stubbornness and how she will always argue her corner. .
The image given is of someone who is very conscious of her appearance and dress but is not all that aesthetically pleasing. She has plenty of what would be seen as physical faults her hearing and her teeth; it gives the impression of some one who has been beaten or well accustomed to fighting. This is true though of the Wife because she fights her husbands, maybe not physically, to gain "maisterie". Whilst she has been injured physically the portrait does not give the impression of someone who has been beaten in any way. .
Her Astrological Make up is quite a fundamental piece of the Wife's character because it gives all sorts of hints as to attitude and it also provides a medieval explanation as to her temperament. It tells us of her warlike tendencies and why this should be so in medieval times.
