SOURCE: Crane, Susan. “Alison's Incapacity and Poetic Instability in The Wife of Bath's Tale.” PMLA 102, no. 1 (January 1987): 20-7.

In the following essay, Crane investigates the Wife of Bath's attempts to define her autonomy, and she observes that many of Alisoun's ideas conflict with one another, and her quest for women's independence is unsustainable.

Geoffrey Chaucer's Wife of Bath's Tale so closely illustrates the concerns of its Prologue that critics agree it can only be understood in relation to its assertive, female, marriage-minded narrator. But why does Alison's Tale resemble an Arthurian romance? Her Prologue is based on antifeminist tracts, marital satire, biblical exegesis—a clerical mixture from which Alison draws life and departs like the Eve of amphibians leaving the sea while carrying its salt in her veins. It would seem beyond this creature's ken to speak of ladies' gracious mercy, of quests and fairy knowledge. Only the...