SOURCE: Henebry, Charles W. M. “Apprentice Janekyn/Clerk Jankyn: Discrete Phases in Chaucer's Developing Conception of the Wife of Bath.” Chaucer Review 32, no. 2 (1997): 146-61.

In the following essay, Henebry further develops the theory that Chaucer rewrote and revised the Wife of Bath's character repeatedly. He contends that Chaucer changed Alisoun's views on marriage, fidelity, and autonomy throughout the writing process and eventually blended these ideas together to form a multidimensional character.

The idea that the Wife of Bath did not spring forth fully fledged from the mind of her creator is not a new one. Her character is in conception both original and complex. For this reason, the thesis that she underwent a process of reconception and revision is attractive—not simply to critics who are inclined to believe that something cannot come out of nothing, but also to those who would like to know more about the...