The Canterbury Tales: The Clerk’s Tale is Chaucer’s exaggerated version of Petrarch’s who based his version on the original by Boccaccio. The tale exaggerates that of an abusive relationship, between Griselda, and her tyrannical husband Walter during the medieval times. Chaucer does everything he can to distinguish between the two as victim and tyrant in order to convince readers of his own opinion of Walter and Griselda. Walter’s role as tyrant Walter, husband of Griselda, plays the tyrant of The Clerk’s Tale. Walter explains his own motive behind his tyrannical testing’s as being the desire to know Griselda’s ‘wille’ and steadfastness or obedience. At the narrative’s level, obedience appears not to be the primary goal of the testing: it seems to be, rather, the desire of torment as well as Griselda’s chiere in its response to Walter’s ruthless commands. Chaucer …show more content…
She concludes, for Walter’s observation of Griselda’s chiere, he needs to see the ‘wound’ (A Great Effusion of Blood? 2004). This sort of testing is mnemonic of interrogatory torture, whose goal is to acquire knowledge and discover “Truth”. Walter interprets his torture as a procedure whose goal is a truth about Griselda’s ‘faith’ to her oath. But Griselda’s ‘truth’ is a condition of her soul, a spiritual self-possession. Walter already recognises that she has passed every one of his trials and has acted in coordination with his will; but it is her face, her chiere, that he sees as interposing between his knowledge of her loyalty and his knowledge of her ‘truth.’ He insists that there is still a hidden truth he needs to uncover. The spectacle of Griselda’s composed chiere stimulates Walter’s desire to construct another and yet another cruel test, continuing a cycle of mimetic
The Merchant's Prologue and Tale presents the darkest side of Chaucer's discussion on marriage. Playing off both the satire of the moral philosopher, the Clerk, and the marital stage set by the Wyf of Bathe, the Merchant comes forth with his angry disgust about his own marital fate. Disillusioned and depraved, the Merchant crafts a tale with a main character who parallels his own prevarication and blind reductionism while he simultaneously tries to validate his own wanton life by selling his belief to the other pilgrims. As both pervert reality through pecuniary evaluations on different levels, however, both are exposed to be blind fools, subject to the very forces that they exert on others. As this reversal happens and the Merchant satirizes Januarie blindness, Chaucer reveals the Merchant's blindness, giving him the very significance that he had spent his whole tale trying to deny.
Throughout literature, relationships can often be found between the author of a story and the story that he writes. In Geoffrey Chaucer's frame story, Canterbury Tales, many of the characters make this idea evident with the tales that they tell. A distinct relationship can be made between the character of the Pardoner and the tale that he tells.
Cox, Catherine S. Gender and Language in Chaucer. Gainesville, Florida: U of Florida P, 1997.
Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Canterbury Tales Study Guide : Summary and Analysis of The Pardoner's Tale | GradeSaver." Study Guides & Essay Editing | GradeSaver. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 May 2011. .
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. Berkeley: U of California P. 1992. Print. (Kennedy Library PR1928.W64 H36 1992)
Chaucer identifies a pardoner as his main character for the story and utilizes the situational and verbal irony found in the pardoner’s interactions and deplorable personality to demonstrate his belief in the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church during this time. Chaucer first begins his sly jab at the Church’s motives through the description of the Pardoner’s physical appearance and attitude in his “Canterbury Tales.” Chaucer uses the Pardoner as a representation of the Church as a whole, and by describing the Pardoner and his defects, is able to show what he thinks of the Roman Catholic Church. All people present in the “Canterbury Tales” must tell a tale as a part of a story-telling contest, and the pilgrim Chaucer, the character in the story Chaucer uses to portray himself, writes down the tales as they are told, as well as the story teller. The description of the Pardoner hints at the relationship and similarity between the Pardoner and the Church as a whole, as well as marks the beginning of the irony to be observed throughout the “Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale.”
The two tales, told by the Wife of Bath and the Clerk in The Canterbury Tales, have parallel plots. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” begins with a lusty knight standing before his king’s court because of unjust acts he committed with a young maiden. Before the king can execute the knight, the queen objects and offers that the knight’s life is spared if he can find the answer to what women really want. The knight embarks on his journey to discover the answer (“The Wife of Bath’s Tale” 167-68). Similarly, “The Clerk’s Tale” takes place in the kingdom of Saluzzo, Italy under the control of Walter, the marquis. The people of Saluzzo eagerly advised Walter to find a wife to ensure an heir to the throne. Walter finally finds the standard, beautiful woman in poverty named Griselda. She values hard work and humility, and Walter chooses to marry her. However, she must take a vow to Walter never to complain and to be loyal despite whatever the future may bring. Both plots revolve around the noble class and the differences among the social structure of the time because of the variety of characters portrayed in each tale. The two tales’ plots are d...
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. Los Angelos, CA: University of California Press, 1992. Print.
Hansen, Elaine Tuttle. (1992). Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. University of California Press, Ltd: England. (pgs 188-208).
The beginning of the marriage was peaceful. Then Griselda gave birth to a daughter. It is at this time that Gualtieri begins to “test” Griselda. His tests are actually forms of emotional abuse. He begins by testing Griselda’s obedience by having the child taken away to be raised elsewhere by woman kinfolk. He told Griselda that their daughter was dead, that he had her killed by his subjects. He repeats this same test with the birth of their son a few years later. Griselda, with no words of protest, surrenders both her children to their deaths by their own father, her husband.
The Countess struggles with her instincts, and the role they force her to play. She is “indifferent” to her duty as ruler of the supernatural, even “horribl[y] reluctan[t]” (95). After feeding on young men, the Countess’s grief manifests as “the[ir] blood on [her] cheeks … mixed with tears” (96). Her desire to “caress their … cheeks and stroke their … hair” cannot be fulfilled, as long as her “ghastl[y] … condition,” her need
In "The Clerk's Tale", one of the stories in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, a Clerk from Oxford recounts the story of the marriage of Walter, an Italian prince, and Griselda, a gorgeous woman whom he brings out of poverty in order to be his wife. The Clerk describes the tale of how Walter tested the boundaries of his wife's loyalty and subservience by taking away her children and making it appear as if her children were murdered, when in actuality they were living a life of luxury in a distant land. The Clerk's chronicle serves as a commentary on the role that the university plays in the disenfranchisement of women. Although women exhibit levels of kind-heartedness and patience that men would never reach, the university reinforces
The Church is the first institution that Chaucer attacks using satire in The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer wants to attack the church’s hypocrisy. Chaucer decides to create the character of the pardoner to prove his point. Cawthorne conveys, “His Canterbury Tales collects together 24 narratives with a General Prologue and an epilogue or Retraction.” Chaucer describes the character before telling their tale. The Pardoner is a man who steals from the poor. Chaucer says on page 127 line 77, “For though I am a wholly vicious man don’t think I can’t tell moral tales.” The pardoner knows what he does is wrong, but he continues to do it anyway.
Overall the Clerk is a very humble man who only speaks when necessary, is fascinated by learning primarily philosophy as well as other subjects, and is grateful for his friends and companions. 2 SUMMARY OF THE CLERK’S TALE The Clerk’s tale tells us about the story of a marquis of Salucia, a town in western Italy, and how he married a woman and tested her loyalty to the extremes. The marquis was named Walter and his subjects wanted him to marry but he did not want to because he did not want to lose his freedom.
The Canterbury Tales is a great contemplation of stories, that display humorous and ironic examples of medieval life, which imitate moral and ethical problems in history and even those presented today. Chaucer owed a great deal to the authors who produced these works before his time. Chaucer tweaked their materials, gave them new meanings and revealed unscathed truths, thus providing fresh ideas to his readers. Chaucer's main goal for these tales was to create settings in which people can relate, to portray lessons and the irony of human existence.