Some Thoughts While Entering Into the Second Paper

A Marriage Group Without Being The Marriage Group

In reference to part of an article that we read in class, we have previously noted that for a while Chaucerian scholarship had grouped four of the tales together in the so-called "Marriage Group." We dismissed this grouping as largely unhelpful for a number of good reasons. One such reason was the fact, made evident by more recent scholarly discoveries, that the "Marriage Group" consists of tales found in separate fragments, so that they do not appear to have been joined immediately next together by Chaucer at all.

However, while working on my second paper's proposal, it struck me anew just how extensively the themes of marriage and women permeate the The Canterbury Tales. Traditionally, the four tales fallibly merged to form the "Marriage Group" are "The Wife of Bath's Tale," "The Clerk's Tale," "The Merchant's Tale" and "The Franklin's Tale" (as well as their respective prologues). Each of these four tales are to contribute to my enthymeme, but it was only this evening that I realized that I was about to focus especially on the tales within "The Marriage Group." In other words, it was natural for me to analyze these texts the most extensively if I was desiring to understand Chaucer's implicit or explicit remarks about marriage and (more importantly, for me) the married woman.

Interesting to me is that, together (without--for the most part--being linked directly in narration), these four tales determine the direction of so much of The Canterbury Tales as a whole. Whether or not there is a "Marriage Group," the topic of marriage shapes the tone and content of the majority of (if not all) Canterbury Tales. That is especially true if we consider "The Knight's Tale" another tale concerned preeminently with marriage (the object, after all, of the competing knights' feud). The chivalric ethics of the knight permeates his story and the ideas of marriage, courtship and honor he depicts. "The Miller's Tale" and "The Reeeve's Tale" respond with absolute disregard of ethics. Love gives way to lust. The woman becomes even more plainly an object than in "The Knight's Tale," where the same was already arguably true. Then the Man of Law offers a portrait of a very desirable wife (Constance), so that it is no surprise that the Wife of Bath is offered an opportunity to share her own experience. She, however, contrasts the virtuous character of the still ideal Constance (merely an ideal married woman, rather than an ideal virgin) so obviously and aggressively that the Summoner and Friar begin an argument (the essence of their tales) due to their differing responses to the Wife of Bath. Once again, then, the Clerk brings the topic back to marriage, responding more completely to the Wife of Bath than had the Friar or Summoner; and the influence of the marriage theme continues.

The point is plain. Simply because we have rightfully been ridded of "The Marriage Group" does not mean that marriage does not play a central role in the narrative of The Canterbury Tales. Indeed, it is arguably the foundational theme, so that--despite being without "The Marriage Group"--The Canterbury Tales are nevertheless grouped by marriage