The Suffering Griselda in The Clerk's Tale

In Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Clerk's Tale," from The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer describes a "perfect wife." This wife, Griselda, is totally submissive to her husband, and seems to have no regrets or remorse for anything he makes her do. Griselda's husband, Walter, puts her through many trials in order to test her dedication and loyalty to him. He takes away both of their children, telling her that he is going to have them killed. He then tells her that he is divorcing her and taking another bride. After this, he forces her to prepare the new bride for him. Through all of this, Griselda loves Walter without fail, meets his demands without any word of disapproval, and remains faithful.

This causes the reader to ask many questions. What kind of a mother is a woman who would allow her children to be killed without any opposition from her? Is she weak for allowing her husband to do this to her? Is Griselda really a wonderful, patient woman, or is she cold and heartless? Griselda is the paragon of an archetypal virtuous woman (as conceived by patriarchy), submissive and silent. Of course, one can not view Griselda as a totally real person, because, theoretically, no real person would allow herself to be treated in this way, no matter how the belief is that a woman should act. She only makes sense when the reader views her as a representative of a particular biblical tradition: the suffering servant. Most readers of "The Clerk's Tale," especially women, view her as a bad mother and person. However, when compared to some of the characters of the bible, the reader is able to find some sympathy for her.

Walter is the head of the land, and he is being pressured to find a bride. He decides on Gr...

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... The Clerk is urging the reader to think about the fact that if this human woman can show so much patience to another human, why can the reader not have this patience with the trials that God sends people in their lives. God gives no one a trial that they are unable to overcome. When the Clerk's Tale is viewed from this angle, Griselda becomes a model that all humans should strive to imitate.

Works Cited:

1.) Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Clerk's Tale," The Canterbury Tales. Translated by Nevill Coghill. London: Penguin Group, 1951. 320-356.

2.) http://panther.bsc.edu/~shagen/gresgend.htm

3.) Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Clerk's Tale," The Riverside Chaucer. Gen. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Third Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987. 137-153.

4.) The Harper Collins Study Bible. Gen. Ed. Wayne A. Meeks. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1993.