The Canterbury Tales · Chapter
Pars Quinta explained
The marquis, still testing his wife Griseldis, publicly announces he will take a new wife and orders her to return to her father's house.
What happens
The marquis, still testing his wife Griseldis, publicly announces he will take a new wife and orders her to return to her father's house. Griseldis responds with unwavering patience and humility, agreeing to leave but asking only for a simple smock to cover her womb. She returns to her father, who curses the day she married, and she lives with him in humble patience, demonstrating a model of wifely obedience.
Themes in this chapter
Marriage and Sovereignty
Griseldis' complete submission to her husband's authority, even when he unjustly casts her out, highlights the power dynamics in marriage.
Fortune and Providence
Griseldis accepts her reversal of fortune with equanimity, stating 'No man may always have prosperity' and enduring 'the stroke of fortune.'
Gender and Power
The marquis exercises absolute power over Griseldis, who can only plead for a smock to cover her body, illustrating the gendered hierarchy.
Characters to notice
- Walter
The marquis who continues to test his wife's patience by publicly announcing he will take a new wife and sending her away.
- Griseldis
The patient wife who humbly accepts her husband's decree, returns to her father's house, and asks only for a smock to cover her womb.
- Janicola
Griseldis' father, who curses the day she married and covers her with an old coat upon her return.
Key passages
“Certes, Griseld', I had enough pleasánce / To have you to my wife, for your goodness, / And for your truth, and for your obeisánce, / Not for your lineage, nor for your richéss;”
Indeed, Griseldis, I was happy to marry you for your goodness, truth, and obedience, not for your family or wealth.
The marquis justifies his decision to send Griseldis away by emphasizing that he married her for her virtues, not her status.
“Naked out of my father's house, quoth she, / I came, and naked I must turn again.”
I came naked from my father's house, and naked I must return.
Griseldis acknowledges her humble origins and accepts her return to poverty.
“But sooth is said—algate I find it true, / For in effect it proved is on me— / Love is not old as when that it is new.”
It is true, as I now find, that love does not remain as strong as it was when new.
Griseldis reflects on the fading of her husband's love over time.