# Pars Quinta explained — The Canterbury Tales

> Chapter companion for The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

## 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.

## Character check-ins

### 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 lines

> 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._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/chapters/pars-quinta
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_canterbury_tales_se/chapters