The Canterbury Tales: The Clerk's Tale Theme of Marriage

So, what is marriage, anyway?

That's a question you might start asking yourself after you give "The Clerk's Tale" a go, since this is a story that's all about figuring out the proper relationship between husbands and wives. It's the narrator himself who talks about the subject most often, but his opinions are also the hardest to pin down. At one point, he seems to be all for the total submission of wives to their husbands, while at other points, he's totally against this. He praises Grisilde throughout the tale, but then he ends by singing the praises of assertive, even domineering women like the Wife of Bath.

Ultimately, the narrator's role may be something like that of a Greek chorus: to express all possible perspectives on the events in the story. Walter's nobles, however, have a more well-defined view of marriage: a nobleman must marry to produce an heir. Walter defies this expectation for a long time due to his view of marriage as a kind of prison. He then fulfills it halfheartedly, by marrying not the noblewoman from a powerful family whose alliances will cement his own power, but the poor virtuous girl he can control.

Walter's expectation for his wife—that she obey him absolutely—and his obsession with enforcing it have terrible consequences for the woman he marries.

1. What is Walter's noblemen's perspective on marriage? How does this compare with Walter's?
2. What kind of wife do his noblemen recommend for Walter? How does this wife compare with the one Walter ultimately chooses? How does this comparison reflect these people's differing motivations?
3. What are Walter's expectations for his wife? Where and how does the tale question these expectations, if at all?
4. Does the "Clerk's Tale" examine the obligations of a husband toward his wife? If so, how and where? If not, why not?

Walter's choice of Grisilde as his wife reflects his fear that marriage is a prison.

Walter's choice of Grisilde as his wife reveals a romantic streak in stark contrast to the more practical attitudes of his noblemen toward marriage.