While
reading the Franklin's Tale, I noticed some major similarities to the
Merchant's Tale. Obviously, the tales are very different in their outcomes and
the morality of the characters, but bear with me here:
First we have the Knight:
Picture here. |
Picture here. |
Then we have the wives:
Next we have the squires. Damian and
Aurelius are the most similar of all the pairs. They are both deeply in love
(or in lust, however you interpret it) with the wives of the Knights they serve
under. They both confront the wives about their feelings (Damian through a
letter, and Aurelius face to face.)
The general situation of these
two stories is also very similar. The squire is in love with the Knight’s wife,
they make their feelings known, and through circumstances, whether the wives
want to sleep with them or not, they seem to have won who they are after. The
location where both couples are to have sex is even the same: the garden.
However, these stories are
completely different stories. In the Merchant’s Tale May and Damian have sex in
a pear tree, and lie to January about it. In the Franklin’s Tale, Dorigene is
completely honest with Arveragus and he encourages her to keep her word and
when Aurelius sees how miserable she is, he lets her go.
Why are these stories so similar
yet different? The characters in the Franklin’s Tale are obviously more virtuous
than the characters in the Merchant’s Tale. What makes them more virtuous? They
are honest with each other, especially in the case of Dorigene and Arveragus,
and they keep the promises that are made to the other characters until they are
released from the promise. These two ideas are what ultimately make these
characters more virtuous.
I propose that the Franklin heard
the Merchant’s Tale and was unsatisfied with how things came about. Many of the
ideals seen in the Franklin’s Tale are opposite of the Merchants.
Arveragus and Dorigene have a
love that was built on mutual respect and on subordination on the part of Arveragus.
He loves her passionately and pursues her and eventually wins her love. He then
gives her ultimate freedom to do whatever she wants. Compare this to the
marriage of January and May. January decided one day that he wanted the perfect
wife and searched for one like searching for an object. Once they married, he treated
her awfully, and was constantly jealous and controlling.
Dorigene’s agreement with Aurelius
(though she had no idea it would be fulfilled) was that if he moved the rocks,
she would love him most. The rocks were likely to have killed her husband and
she was making this request out of love.
May was trapped in a marriage she
mostly likely did not want to be in in the first place, with a man who told her
he could do anything to her, and was constantly controlling and watching her
every move. She did what she did out of desperation. One man treated her
lovingly, and she probably fell for him instantly because she was so starved
for that kind of attention.
Dorigene, in a happy marriage,
was virtuous. May, in an unhappy marriage, was not. I believe the Franklin is
proposing that a happy, respectful, and equal marriage will produce virtuous
people.
Picture here. |
I hadn't thought about comparing "The Franklin's Tale" with "The Merchant's Tale." Do you think virtuous people create happy marriages, or happy marriages create virtuous people?
ReplyDeleteI had been focusing more on the similarities between "The Merchant's Tale," "The Miller's Tale," and "The Clerk's Tale" (in a certain way). All three talk about the problems arising from not making marriages that match in kinde (hope I'm using that word correctly). Now I'm wondering if The Franklin was actually inspired by the WOB's tale--his story shows what her ideal marriage would truly look like. I wonder how connected he and the WOB were, in terms of estate and world-understanding.
I'm glad you brought this up, Lara.
Hmm I do think it's a bit of the chicken and the egg question. I think I want to rephrase how I worded this post. I don't think that happy marriages make virtuous people, because awful people wouldn't be virtuous just because they have happy marriages. I think it's more the idea that virtuous people make happy marriages, or maybe they both influence each other. If you are a fairly decent person, and you are in a happy marriage, you may be encouraged by that situation to be a more virtuous person. But I don't think that my statement that happy marriages make virtuous people was quite right.
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