Tanci xiaoshuo, or narrative in verse, was popular in the book market from the seventeenth to the early twentieth centuries. It was also a major genre for women who wrote narrative stories. In most women's tanci, the heroine is the focus of the stories. We observe that when particular characteristics of the heroine are pushed to the limit, other figures, extreme ones, emerge: the extreme female figures refuse to be confined by conventional women's roles, and therefore are often marginalized in the text and negatively portrayed. But they actually help enliven and augment the text and invite interpretation. In this article I will discuss three extreme female figures in women's tanci, namely, the alcoholic mother, the mad wife, and the celibate daughter In literary expression drinking sometimes represents a woman's longing for freedom. It may provide a sense of relief from apprehension or a refuge of laughter, but it may also be seen as a suggestion of abandonment and violence and an unraveling of women's moral values. Madness is often a label for confused women who cannot be restrained. They have to be confined, to prevent them from disturbing the peace and order. The confinement of their physical bodies signifies the dissolution of their social identities. Celibacy is the state of life of female figures in tanci who choose to pursue personal gratification. They realize the ideal of celibacy through tokens of gender performance, self-confinement, self-exile, or even self-destruction. The above-mentioned three types of extreme figures often overlap. Excessive drinking may lead to madness, and madness serves as an excuse for celibacy, while confinement is the common destiny shared by mad and celibate women. The extreme female figures emerge from the margins of the tanci text and break through social conventions. They are the rivals as well as doubles of the heroines; they complicate the imagination of the heroine and help establish the narrative paradigm of women's tanci.