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Truth, Faith, Marriage, and nobility in a new version of Geoffrey Chaucerïs the Franklin tale

Abstract:

Readers of Chaucer will appreciate the vital importance of considering The Canterbury Tales as a connected Human Comedy, seeing all the tales most importantly as an expression of the Pilgrims' characters and their relations to one another in the great drama. The Franklin's Tale has been taken by many critics to be the final and most admirable contribution to the "Marriage Group" of tales - this tale and the preceding tales of the Wife of Bath, the Clerk, and the Merchant. The Wife's tale insists on female dominance, the Clerk's shows what can happen if male dominance becomes tyrannical, and the Merchant's is a tale of a marriage born out of the stupidity and self-indulgence of one partner, and continued in the adultery and deceit of the other. The Franklin advocates tolerance and forbearance on both sides of a marriage, a willingness to do each other's will, and to give up the hopeless notion that one can always make one's will prevail. Marriage provides a pretext to maintain a courtly position because love furnishes the opportunity to demonstrate virtue. Chaucer paints a sad but realistic picture of the potential for love and amorous relationships in a world in which a distinction needs to be made between public and private roles. And in the end "nobility" becomes the catalyst that brings about a harmonious and edifying conclusion