Franklin's Tale Arveragus Relationship

In the beginning of The Franklin’s Tale, Arveragus had to obey everything that Dorigen told him, she has power over him (courtly love). After they get married, he would still obey everything she would say, except for “appearance of sovereignty, Which he would have to avoid bringing shame on his status (of knighthood).” Dorigen promised that there should never be fault in her. She was worried when her husband left for war, she couldn’t live without him, she wants him to go back home. Soon a young and handsome named Aurelius appears and he’s in love with Dorigen. When he tells her what his intentions are, she tells him, “I shall never be an untrue wife, In word nor deed, so long as I have my wits; I will be his to whom that I am knit. Take this for my final answer.” Even after telling him that she tells him that if he removes all the rocks, from the sea so that they do not prevent any boat or ship to go, she will love him best of any man. After two years, Arveragus returned and they were still in love. Aurelius would work hard and looked for ways to remove the rocks, until one day he got what he wanted. When he told Dorigen, she was in shock, she thought it was impossible.

During those days Arveragus had gone out of town and Dorigen was saying that she would rather die than her “body to have a shame, or know myself false, or lose my good name.” When Arveragus got back home, he saw her crying, she told him everything. Her husband told her to go with Aurelius. Aurelius let her go because he found out that Arveragus accepted for her to go with him. He would rather suffer than break their love.
The central framework of Courtly Love is different from the central premise of The Franklin’s Tale because in Courtly Love the man should do everything the woman says, but in The Franklin’s Tale you don’t see much of that (only a little), plus Dorigen even had to go with Aurelius when Arveragus told her to because she had gave her word. In Courtly Love, she could have changed the rules. The central framework of Courtly love is for a woman to be able to live without a man and a man to not be able to live without a woman. In The Franklin’s Tale, Dorigen wanted her husband to go back because she missed him, she couldn’t live without him. As was mentioned in class, in Courtly Love, a female doesn’t need a man/relationship to find happiness. I think women should learn to be happy even without a man. If they can’t live happy alone, what makes them think that they could live happy with someone else? You have to be happy with your life before you could truly be happy with someone else. Also, the man convinces the woman of his love. In The Franklin’s Tale, Dorigen and her husband love each other and Aurelius comes and tries to break them up, he wants her to leave her husband and he does what she wants to break them up. This actually reminded me of a story my aunt told me, which is a little similar to this. My aunt’s husband was in the navy and she loves him so much, but once when she went to a concert a man instantly liked her, he wanted her phone number to talk and added her on all her social media, but she didn’t like him. He even told her husband that she was flirting with him just to break them up, but since he saw that she didn’t even like him, she just stopped trying.