The Canterbury Tales · Chapter
The Franklin's Tale explained
The Franklin tells a tale of love, honor, and the tension between truth and gentility.
What happens
The Franklin tells a tale of love, honor, and the tension between truth and gentility. The knight Arviragus marries the fair Dorigen, but when he leaves for England, Dorigen is courted by the squire Aurelius. To be free of his advances, she makes a rash promise that she will love him only when the rocks along the coast are removed. Aurelius, through a magician, makes the rocks disappear, and Dorigen is bound by her word. Arviragus, upon learning of the promise, insists she keep her word for the sake of truth. Aurelius, moved by their nobility, releases her from the promise, and the magician forgives the debt, illustrating the ideal of 'gentilesse'.
Themes in this chapter
Chivalry and True Gentility
The tale explores true gentility as a matter of character and honor, exemplified by Arviragus's willingness to let Dorigen keep her word and Aurelius's eventual release of her from the promise.
Marriage and Sovereignty
The marriage between Arviragus and Dorigen is based on mutual trust and equality, and the tale questions the nature of sovereignty in relationships, particularly through Dorigen's promise and its resolution.
Characters to notice
- Arviragus
A knight of great honor and gentility who marries Dorigen and later insists she keep her rash promise to Aurelius, prioritizing truth over personal desire.
- Dorigen
Arviragus's wife, who makes a rash promise to Aurelius that she will love him if the coastal rocks are removed, and later struggles with the conflict between her word and her marriage.
- Aurelius
A squire who loves Dorigen and, after a magician removes the rocks, releases her from her promise upon seeing the nobility of Arviragus and Dorigen.
- The Franklin
The teller of this tale, a wealthy landowner who advocates for the ideals of gentility and truth over rigid social hierarchy.
Key passages
“But every word that she had said, / She held it for a truth, and would not be misled.”
Dorigen considered every word she had spoken to be a binding truth and refused to break her promise.
This reflects the medieval emphasis on the sanctity of oaths and the importance of keeping one's word, a key theme in the tale.
“For in this world, as I suppose, / There is no man so wise that he can know / The end of any thing that he begins.”
No one, no matter how wise, can foresee the outcome of their actions.
This highlights the theme of fortune and the unforeseen consequences of rash promises.