An Excellent Answer to an Essay Question about Marriage in Chaucer

The Prompt: Write a short (less than 500 words) essay on one of the following topics. Your essay should have a clear thesis statement supported by appropriate evidence from the text or texts. Correct grammar and punctuation do count.

  1. What themes do "The Wanderer" and "The Wife's Lament" have in common with Beowulf?
  2. Compare and contrast the portrayal of wives in Beowulf and in The Canterbury Tales.
  3. What are the similarities between the portrayal of the court of Arthur in Malory's Morte Darthur and Marie De France's Lanval?
  4. Compare and contrast the view of marriage presented in Chaucer's "The Franklin's Tale" with the view of marriage presented in "The Wife of Bath's Tale."
The Answer:
     Marriage has been described both as the most pure and beautiful bond two people can share, and also as the single worst thing a man can do to himself. The fact that so many completely disparate views of marriage exist is central to the competing messages of Chaucer's "Franklin's Tale" and his "The Wife of Bath's Tale." These two tales communicate exactly the reverse of each other in terms of what leads to marital bliss, but both show the pains that marriage can bring you.
     In "The Wife of Bath's Tale," a rapist-knight searches all the realm for the answer to what a woman desires most, in order to redeem his bad deed. After searching extensively and encountering various different answers, the one that proves true in the end is that "Women desiren to have sovereyntee / As wel over hir husband as hir love / And for to been in maistrie hym above" (1044-1046). The Wife of Bath believes that ugly or beautiful, kind or evil, women should be obeyed by their husbands in all thing. This is the only way to have a woman be happy, and to have a "successful" marriage. "The Franklin's Tale" however communicates a very different view of what makes a happy couple, using a classic love-triangle to do so. The position in this tale is that "maistrie" does not belong in a happy, successful, relationship, and that "trouthe" and fidelity is the only way to guarantee success. This concept of complete communication and of equal standing between man and wife is clearly in direct opposition to what the Wife of Bath believes makes a marriage best.
     Though having presented opposing views on how to create a lasting marriage, the two stories do seem to convey one message similar in both stories. That message being that marriage is a tough, complicated endeavor surely to bring some heartache. Even when happily married, Dorigen encounters a deep sadness when forced to be away from her beloved, and The Wife of Bath comments how she really hated a few of her five husabands even with some degree of "maistrie" present. So, although "The Franklin's Tale" and "The Wife of Bath's Tale" each have a very different idea of a good marriage, they both at the same time understand that marriage in-and-of-itself is a difficult and dangerous endeavor to which many paths to happiness may be chosen, though none will be complete.