'Chaucer was a friend to all women' How much does the Franklin's tale back up this view?

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D.Hendy, 12SMC

‘Chaucer was a friend to all women’ How much does the Franklin’s tale back up this view?

In focusing upon the Chaucer’s treatment of the female sex, there are three main areas to consider. The first is Dorigen’s actions, and the second is the other characters treatment of her. The third is his general attitudes towards the sex and their position in society.

Arveragus, the noble knight, during his first appearance in the tale, at the very beginning, behaves just the way we would expect a chivalrous, honourable knight to behave, and even exceeds this expectation. Before they are married, he plays the roles normally taken – he is at the lady’s beck and call, and she is in control. However, unlike normal, when they are married, he refuses to reverse these positions. He, rarely in the time in which the tale was set, believes in equality in marriage, and says to Dorigen that he will never try and take control, or be jealous of her, as long as he lives:

‘That nevere in al his lyf he, day ne night,

ne sholde upon him take no maistrie

Again hir wil, ne kith hire jalousie’

However, he does, very soon, commit the act of leaving her to go to foreign lands, to fight. While this is required of a knight, and would be seen as a grand, rightful act, it is important to consider how much he was thinking of his wife in this decision. This can be taken as merely an act of such importance, and such reverence to the society in which he lived that no one would even think of him staying for his wife, or it may be a callous gesture.

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Near the end of the tale, when he returns, he continues to play the part of the noble husband, and rescues Dorigen from her predicament. However, whether the method by which he does this is of a man who considers himself equal to his wife, and thinks of her feelings as paramount is open to opinion.  He tells her she must stick to her trouthe, and fulfil her promise to Aurelius. This, while solving the problem, could well have resulted in disaster for both of them, if Aurelius hadn’t recognised the honour in what Arveragus had done. This act ...

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