The Canterbury Tales: Wife of Bath In the Hollywood blockbuster Basic Instinct, Sharon Stone plays a devious, manipulative, sex-driven woman who gets whatever she wants through her ploys for control. Stone's portrayal of this character is unforgettable and makes the movie. In book or film, the most memorable female characters are those who break out of the stereotypical “good wife” mold. When an author or actress uses this technique effectively, the woman often carries the story. In Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, he portrays the Wife of Bath, Alison, as a woman who bucks the tradition of her times with her b