Franklin\'s Tale From the Book the Canterbury Tales

¶ … Franklin's Tale from the book the Canterbury Tales

At the end of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Franklin's Tale the author asks, "Which seems the finest gentleman to you?" Although all the characters demonstrate chivalrous behavior, all except one has ulterior motives behind their actions, and that person is the magician.

Dorigen loves her husband deeply, yet her immature nature imposes on all those around her. She is so distraught when Arveragus leaves, that she mopes and frets like a schoolgirl. Her behavior worries her friends who invest their time and energy into trying to make her happy. When they take her for walks along the seacoast, she only becomes more upset because the ships remind her of Arveragus and the rocks along the coast only remind her of the all the deaths they have caused. When her friends take her to a social gathering and she is confronted by Aurelius, who has been secretly in love with her for years, rather than handling the situation with compassion and maturity, she turns the approach into a sort of riddle. She states that if he could make the rocks disappear to ensure Arveragus' safe return home, she would accept Aurelius' advances. Never believing that such an act was possible, Dorigen feels safe from the fate of the promise and rather smug that she has avoided a direct confrontation with Aurelius. Moreover, she is asserting that it is Arveragus that she loves since it is his welfare that she is seeking to ensure, however, she is basically toying with Aurelius' emotions.

Although Aurelius releases her from her debt, "That made me have of her so great pity, And right as freely as he sent her to me, As freely sent I her to him again," he nevertheless, had actually instigated the drama by making advances towards a married woman. He was as much of a schoolboy as Dorigen was a schoolgirl. Both immature. Both unable to control their emotions of desire. He, like Dorigen, moped and fretted until someone came to his rescue. At his brother's suggestion, Aurelius enlists the services of a magician to make the rocks have the appearance of disappearing, an illusion. Thus, like Dorigen, he is using trickery to deceive. And like Dorigen, he is consumed with his own emotions and his own desires. He is not truly honoring the agreement because the illusion is not insurance that passage is safe. The rocks are still there, they only appear to be gone, therefore, sailing ships could still, and perhaps even more likely, be in danger. However, the only outcome of the illusion that Aurelius was concerned with was that of having Dorigen as his own.

Arveragus is actually an unwitting participant in this saga. He has no idea that Dorigen has made such an agreement with Aurelius, nor, like Dorigen would he have believed that such a deed was possible to execute. However, when all is revealed, as a man of honor, he feels that he has no choice but to release Dorigen to Aurelius. Although, this may on the surface appear a chivalrous act, it actually places Dorigen in the position of a possession. She is treated as if she had been bargained in a game of poker. And although she placed herself there in actuality, her husband played out the hand and honored the debt. Had the debt been a material possession, this would have been an honorable act. But this was a human being, his wife, his love, the woman whom he shared his vows and heart. It seems it would have been more honorable had he fought a duel to rescue his wife's reputation and save her from such a fate. Yet, he delivers Dorigen to Aurelius as one would deliver a prized horse, sorry to see it forfeited, but a debt is a debt and honor is honor. Sending one's beloved wife to another man to honor a debt does not seem an act of chivalry. Arveragus, like Dorigen, appears to be avoiding confrontation.

The magician appears to be the only character who truly loses through a generous deed. He honored his agreement with Aurelius and performed the illusion which in turn gave Aurelius what he most desired, Dorigen. However, when he heard the circumstances of the saga, he was so touched that he released Aurelius from his debt. As John Pitcher writes, "The master is Chaucer's magician, he who grasps the logic of desire" (Pitcher pp).