On the subject of consent, many critics have noted that in the original versions of the story Virginia was not given the choice of whether she could live or not. For example, in her essay "The Creation of Consent in the Physician's Tale", Lianna Farber points out the detail of Virginia's consent to death "appears neither in Chaucer's stated source, Livy's history, which Chaucer may or may not have known, nor in his unstated source, Jean de Meun's "Roman de la Rose", which Chaucer most certainly did know" meaning that Chaucer added the detail to the story himself. Chaucer's goal in giving Virginia a choice in his version of the tale is unclear. Farber also points out a flaw in Virginius's ultimatum of death or dishonor: "these alternatives are problematic because there would presumably be many other ways to deal with the situation: Virginia could run away; she could go into hiding; Virginius could stall for time while he called together all their friends who were pointedly mentioned when we were introduced to Virginius; and on and on."