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A Portrait of an Ideal Marriage in the Franklin’s Tale
BY YEONG MIN KIM November 7, 2008 In the Franklin’s Tale, Chaucer explores what to the medieval culture was a fairly evident principle: that male dominance was assumed in marriage, and thereby men had “lordshipe […] over hir wyves” (743). This theory the Franklin, or the knight Arveragus- the male protagonist of the Franklin’s Tale- boldly challenges by renouncing “maistrye” (764) in marriage and rejecting what the medieval society thought to be a divinely ordered hierarchy. The Franklin’s Tale instead takes a revolutionary approach and promotes the idea of marriage as an equal partnership. Near the beginning of his tale, the Franklin forthrightly provides readers with an exposition of the qualities of an ideal marriage, and the tale in which his arguments are embedded acts as a model of such an ideal relationship in practice. In fact, the narrative of his tale is an exemplum of how the virtues mentioned in the Franklin’s modern excursus (761-798) have created the “blisse” (744) in the marriage of Arveragus and Dorigen and ultimately enabled the couple to survive severe marital hardships. The unconventional relationship of Arveragus and Dorigen begins conventionally: adhering to the traditional customs of the Middle Ages, Arveragus, the courtly lover and ever-chivalrous knight “loved and dide his payne to serve [Dorigen] in his beste wise” (731-732), all the while suffering “wo, […] peyne, and […] distresse” (737). Dorigen also fits the image of the conventional romance heroine, being “oon the faireste under sonne” (734) and of “heigh kynrede” (735). It is when Dorigen recognizes Arveragus’ “wrothynesse” (738) and “meke obeysaunce” (739) and decides “to take him for hir housbonde and hir lord” (742) that the tale takes a drastic and unpredictable turn. Under normal medieval circumstances, marriage would have reversed the former relationship of courtly love into a relationship with a strict hierarchy of “lordshipe and servage” (794). However, Arveragus pursues an alternative type
of relationship that boldly abandons the power and “maistrie” (747) that men in his culture traditionally assumed in marriage: Of his free wyl he swoor hire as a knight That nevere in al his lyf he, day ne nyght, Ne sholde upon hym take no maistrie Sgayn hir wyl, ne kithe hire jalousie, But hire obeye, and folwe hir wyl in al, As any lovere to his lady shal, Save that the name of soveraynetee, That wolde he have for shame of his degree (745-752). Following this brief account of the courtship and marriage of Arveragus and Dorigen, the Franklin’s textual interjection insists on the compatibility of such renunciation of “maistrie” with the notion of “compaignye” (763), “libertee” (768), “pacience” (773), “temperaunce” (785), and “sufferance” (788) – all of which are qualities necessary in a marriage that is governed under the “lawe of love” (798). The Franklin also stresses the importance of the idea of men “bothe in lordshipe and servage” (794) and husband and wife as “freendes” who “everych oother moot obeye” (762). These virtues and ideals are required to be taken seriously and are thus so taken across the whole range of the Franklin’s Tale. The plot of the Franklin’s Tale, then, revolves around a test of the couple’s commitment to the aforementioned values, as a separation between Arveragus and Dorigen triggers troubling plot events. After a year or so of blissful married life, Arveragus ambitiously leaves for England “to seke in armes worshipe and honour-for al his lust he sette in swich labour” (811-812). During his two year long absence, Dorigen patiently, yet painfully awaits her husband’s return, while she “moorneth, waketh, wayleth, fasteth, [and] pleyneth” (819) with longing for his presence.
Despite Dorigen’s display of
faithfulness and “pacience” in waiting for the return of Arveragus, she violates the seclusion appropriate to women whose husbands are away by placing herself in a garden setting that is conducive to love. This unfortunately results in Aurelius, a “lusty squier” (937) who “hadde [secretly] loved hire best of any creature two yeer and moore” (939-940) professing his deep love to the sympathetic Dorigen who, “in pley,” (988) promises to “love [him] best of any man” (997) if “[he] remoeve all the rokkes, stoon by stoon that they ne lette ship ne boot to goon” (993-994). However, Dorigen’s rash promise has behind it a
clear and sympathetic psychological motivation: her fears for Arveragus’ safety. In fact, she firmly states to Aurelius immediately before her joking promise, “Ne shal I nevere been untrewe wyf in word ne werk, as fer as I have wit; I wol been his to whom that I am knyt. Taak this for final answere as of me” (394397). The problem arises when Aurelius, much to Dorigen’s surprise, succeeds in fulfilling her seemingly impossible request by employing magic to create an illusion of the rocks’ disappearance. After much lamentation and lengthy contemplation about suicide, Dorigen decides to confide in Arveragus, telling “hym al” (1465). Her husband, acting with accordance to the spirit of “compaignye,” patiently listens to her, just as a friend would, and grants her the “libertee” to keep her pledge to Aurelius. Arveragus may have the right as her husband to order her to break the promise, but he has forgone “maistrye” in favor of mutual companionship and therefore generously gives up what he could rightfully claim as his. He bids her go to Aurelius, not as an order, but by supporting her in what she has done. Thus, Dorigen’s rash promise to Aurelius was an expression of her deep and admirable love for her husband, and her keeping of it is an expression of Arveragus’ genuine concern for her “trouthe”. The soundness of the Franklin’s theory on “love [that] wol nat been constreyned by maistrye” (764) is proven by his tale, for the marriage of Arveragus and Dorigen was indeed a remarkable success. The Franklin’s argument against “masistrye” in marriage can therefore function as an answer to the rival views of marriage that were presented in the Wife of Bath’s Prologue and the tales of the Clerk and Merchant. Finally, Chaucer’s complex debate about female and male power struggle in marriage is brought to a satisfactory conclusion in the Franklin’s Tale.