The Sufferings Endured by Griselda and Custance in The Clerk’s Tale and The Man of Law’s Tale
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published 23/05/2008
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SummaryIn both The Clerk’s Tale and The Man of Law’s Tale, the major female characters, Griselda and Custance, find themselves in positions of immeasurable suffering, and both meet their challenges with immeasurable virtue. These tales are meant to act as moral ones, didactic stories about the ideal behavior for dealing with human suffering. Arguments can be and have been made arguing for both Griselda and Custance as purely allegorical figures, Patience and Fortitude respectively, and while the women certainly embody the characteristics of these two qualities, such readings oversimplify and pigeonhole them too narrowly. The Clerk argues that his intention is not to present Griselda as a woman wives ought to imitate, but as a Christian soul that good Christians should be admired for her constancy to Walter no matter what befalls her. Custance also, is meant to express the ideal of Christian piety in her unconditional faith that Christ and the Virgin will help her persevere.
Table of Contents
- In both The Clerk's Tale and The Man of Law's Tale, the major female characters, Griselda and Custance, find themselves in positions of immeasurable suffering.
- Quite possibly one of the most socially aware of the pilgrims, the Clerk knows his place in society.
- Griselda agrees to the terms without complaint.
- As the Clerk tells us repeatedly, she is the perfect wife, and even Walter knows it, because he is beaming after very test she passes.
- It would be simple to see Custance as a pure victim of circumstance.
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