The Clerk Speaks to All

Before the Clerk spoke up the tension among the pilgrims was becoming palpable. The miller upset the reeve with a tale about a young clerk who was having an affair with a carpenter’s wife. Then, in response, the Reeve told a tale about a miller who gets outsmarted by two students who end up sleeping with his wife and young daughter out of spite. Next, the friar tells a story about a crooked summoner. This prompts the summoner’s story of a corrupt friar. The Clerk, a wise character, seems to have perfect timing as he spins a didactic tale that every participant of the Canterbury pilgrimage can take meaning from. The lines that hold the message read:

            This story is seid, nat for that wives sholde

            Folwen Grisilde as in humilitee

            For it were inportable, thogh they wolde;

            But for that every wight, in his degree,

            Sholde be constant in adversitee (1142-1145)

In “The Clerk’s Tale” the character of Grisilde, a young woman, who shows incredible restraint in the face of adversity, is a model for pilgrims and readers alike. Therefore, the pilgrims “Sholde be constant in adversitee” and not seeking revenge on one another, but rather handle the situation with the grace of Grisilde (1146). Second, women pilgrims and female readers alike are encouraged to show restraint, but are told to “Lat noon humilitee youre tonge naile!” (1184). Finally, the male pilgrims and male readers are forewarned to not do as Walter does, for Grisilde has died and with her the patience of a saint. So, “No wedded man so hardy be t’assaille / His wives pacience, in trust to finde / Grisildis, for he in certain he shal faille” (1180).

Marriage and Manipulation

"The Clerk's Tale" should elicit a strong emotional response from the reader because its protagonist is a good and innocent person who suffers repeatedly to satisfy her husband's obsession.  At the behest of his people, Walter, the marquis agrees to wed and provide them a successor of his lineage. His stipulation that he marry a woman of his choosing, no matter her social rank, is an interesting one. Walter’s reasoning for this seems to come from his belief that “under lowe degree / Was ofte vertu hid…” (425-426). Therefore, it makes sense that he chooses the low-born Grisilde. Walter also seems to be interested in Grisilde because he sees in her an ability or willingness to be completely subservient to him.  In a statement to her about what he requires of a wife he says:

I say this, be ye redy with good herte

To al my lust, and that I frely may,

As me best thinketh, do yow laugh or smerte,

And nevere ye to grucche it, night ne day,

And eek whan I say “ye, ne say nat “nay”,

Walter goes on to have her swear to the “oath,” and she does. After they marry he seems to invoke the right to cause her to feel pain by taking from her their first born child and telling her it will be killed. She does not flinch, but rather tells him that she and the child are his to do with as he pleases. After Walter takes her second child, a boy, she reacts in very much the same way. Then, when he informs her that she will be replaced with another she maintains her stoic demeanor and only asks that he “ne prike with nor tormentinge / This tender mainden, as ye han don mo” (1038-1039). Her reactions to the trials and tribulations created for her by Walter are shocking. Perhaps what is equally shocking is the fact that Walter has lied about the children’s deaths and the new wife to learn, through Grisilde's reactions, of her true character and devotion to him.  

This tale remind me of this quote by Martin Luther King, Jr.:

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.