The Wife of Bath's Prologue is different from the Tale in that it is an autobiographical debate with members of the clergy. Dame Allison, the Wife of Bath, lives in a time where oppressive customs are enforced upon women. In the Prologue she stresses her own overbearing evaluation of the position women play in society and in relationships. The reader learns in the Prologue that Allison is attempting to equalize the balance of power between men and women while asserting her dominance over them. "The Wife's Prologue, for all its autobiographical energy, is primarily a debate with the clergy..." (p. 287). The Prologue also serves as an open letter to other "wives." She uses her vast Biblical knowledge to strengthen her argument. The Tale is an "angry riposte to the secular fantasies of Arthurian chivalry and genetic nobility" (p. 287) as demonstrated by her well-born Arthurian knight who is a "common rapist."
             In the Prologue she seeks to speak to the clergy and their teachings that force her silence and submission. She says that the teachings of Christ tell her, "That by the same ensample taughte he me That I ne sholde wedded be but ones" (12-13). This comes from a woman who has outlived five husbands and benefited financially from three of her marriages. She is well aware of the double standards that exist in the institutionalized Catholic Church. The wife tackles and dismisses the Church's justification for looking down on women who've had multiple husbands. She uses the Bible's words against the clergy that would label her an adulteress. She reminds them of God fearing and obeying men who failed to uphold the Church's standard, stating:
             I woot wel Abraham was an holy man,
             And Jacob eek, as fer as evere I can,
             And eech of hem hadde wives mo than two,
             And many another holy man also. (61-64)
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