I agree with the idea that the Wife of Bath representing herself as a hag for more self-centered reasons. After reading the Wife of Bath's tale, I believe that she is an immensely insecure woman, and compensates by constantly attempting to justify herself in her prologue and tale. First of all, she spends much of her time in her prologue going on and on about how sexuality and marriage is justified in Bible, making it acceptable for her to be loose and have husband after husband. In her tale, she devotes two pages to explaining why a person can be considered noble without being born into nobility. This displays her insecurity about not being a true part of the aristocracy. Might she also be compensating for this by marrying so many times? It could also be said that she is self conscious about her age, and so looks for aspects of youth in her "male prey." This ties into her representing herself in her tale as an old hag. She would much rather be a youthful wife, which shows how she is a shallow woman who esteems rank and looks rather than character.