Courtly Love In Chaucer Essay Research Paper

Courtly Love In Chaucer Essay, Research Paper

In the “Franklin’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer

satirically paints a picture of a marriage steeped in the tradition of

courtly love. As Dorigen and Arveragus’ relationship reveals, a couple’s

preoccupation with fulfilling the ritualistic practices appropriate to

courtly love renders the possibility of genuine love impossible. Marriage

becomes a pretense to maintain courtly position because love provides the

opportunity to demonstrate virtue. Like true members of the gentility,

they practice the distinct linguistic and behavioral patterns which accompany

the strange doctrine of courtly love. The characters’ true devotion to

the relationship becomes secondary to the appearance of practicing the

virtues of truth, honor, and generosity. After establishing the inverted

hierarchy of values, Chaucer paints a bleak picture of the potential for

love and relationships in a world in which a distinction needs to be made

between secular and private roles. Dorigen differentiates between “hir

housbonde” and “hir love” (250) and Arveragus distinguishes between “his

lady” and “his wyf” (125).

Immediately, Chaucer signals the practice

of chivalric courtship as the knight who is of noted “heigh kinrede” (63)

ceremoniously completes the “many a labor” (60) of a courtly lover. The

description of the duties that must be undertaken by a classic courtly

lover seeking a wife for social fulfillment corruptss the image of courtship

being motivated by the existence of true love. The emphasis on the inconvenience

with which Arveragus, “dide his payne” (57) suggests he performs “many

a greet empryse” (59) out of obligation and convention rather than as a

part of a genuine amorous pursuit. The weakly disguised presence of the

“ye” in each of these words announces Arveragus’ awareness of the eyes

of the courtly audience observing his performance. The concern with the

outward appearance of the relationship extends to Dorigen as she dutifully

accepts his proposal as a means of repaying the “distresse” (65) undergone

by her lover. The brief description of the couple’s courtship covers only

13 lines, suggesting that the relationship’s foundation has little time

to progress beyond the preliminary stages of lusty, physical attraction

before the marriage is instated.

Framing the already bleak portrayal of

this “accord,” (69) a word typically used to refer to business agreements

or compromises, is the contractual terminology of their agreement which

further downplays the emotional foundation of the relationship. Instead,

the negotiated terms that “frendes everich other moot obeye” (171) indicate

that the lovers are settling for amicable companionship. The agreement

itself is ridden with contradictory terms trying to reconcile the tensions

between the inner sphere where passionate love resides and the outer sphere

which operates under the codes of courtly love. The two agree that Arveragus

will be her “Servant in love, and lord in merrage” (121), but the in reality

these two social positions are mutually exclusive, indicating the impossibility

of the success of this relationship. One of the two will have to be the

dominating figure for it to survive, but then this will eliminate the possibility

of love which “wol nat ben constreyned by maistrye” (92). The “lawe of

love” (126) in the medieval period mandates that a husband is the lord

of his wife, and Arveragus grants her sovereignty only within the scope

of their private life because he must uphold the tradition of male domination

in the outside world. Arveragus’ promise to becomes a way to demonstrate

that ” [p]acience is a heigh vertu” (101). Always aware of the connection

between his actions and his rank he states, “Save that the name of soveraynetee,

/ That wolde he have for shame of his degree.” (79-80). If the two truly

were in love, these sorts of issues would not need to be settled or would

even arise because a couple would assume that a wife would be true to her

husband and that he would treat her with respect and honor. Instead, marriage

is being used to further one’s opportunity to perform noble and virtuous

roles, explaining the struggle between a lover’s commitment to his personal

or public life. Chaucer foreshadows the improbable success of this duality

with the Dorigen’s proclamation, “Ne wolde never God bitwixe us tweyne”

(171). Not only does this contain a double negative, suggesting that a

force will indeed disrupt this arrangement, but the phraseology also indicates

that their relationship will be without God who should be a uniting force

in any marriage.

Chaucer takes pains to mention that “[t]he

joye, the ese, and prosperity” (132) of their relationship last only a

“yeer and more” (134). Chivalric love’s preoccupation with appearances

impels behav

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