We had a difficult time on Thursday determining the moral or the lesson of "The Physician's Tale." In the "Introduction to The Pardoner's Tale," the host provides a bit of insight, I think. He begins by pointing out,
"This was a fals cherl and a fals justice.
As shameful deeth as herte may devyse
Come to thise juges and hire advocatz!" (289-291)
He makes sure to voice his disapproval of the tale itself in how the action plays out. He calls the cherl and the judge false men (deceitful, not liars) and questions where Virginia's advocates were in order to save her. At least, that's how I read it. However, he later goes on to state,
"Wherfore I seye al day that men may see
That yiftes of Fortune and of Nature
Been cause of deeth to many a creature.
Hire beautee was hire deth, I dar wel sayn." (294-297)
Could it be that what appears to be a blessing can actually be a curse? That seems to be a simple explanation. We look at beauty as a blessing for people: the prettier the girl, the more marriage prospects, pretty girls get a lot of attention, etc. In Virginia's case, her beauty led to her death because of the inappropriate attention from the judge. However, this may be too simple an explanation. Are we meant to question the undue importance stressed on superficiality even present in Chaucer's day? Remember, the judge does not like her because of her morality; that would actually prove to be a problem for him in what he wants from her. It could be assumed that if the judge was attracted to her morality and virtues instead of her beauty, he might have gone about more virtuous means of attaining her. Thoughts?
It's interesting that we had such a hard time figuring out a moral to this story in class but I've seen a few blog posts where people propose really good theories! I guess we just had to take a step back from the text to think clearly! I really love this reading and it does make sense that while we tend to look at these tales as separate texts, they were meant to be read as one flowing text and some things may bleed into other sections, like you suggest the moral of the Physician's tale does with the Prologue to the Pardoner's Tale.
ReplyDeleteWhen I charted the Canterbury Tales women I found that all of them were pretty except the WOB. Good women, bad women, they all had to be visually appealing. Your question about if the judge had been attracted to Virginia's morality and virtues reminds me of Laura's post: Happy marriages affect the morals of the participants. The Physician would know about outer appearance not matching inner characteristics, or even other, hidden parts of the body. To be gross, he's probably treated pretty people with STDs.
ReplyDeleteOne of the things that keeps troubling me is how trustworthy is The Host?
It's also interesting--"The Franklin's Tale" rewards virtue and immediately after, "The Physician's Tale" destroys the virtuous.
Good questions.