Custance

Character Analysis

We're Trying to Find a Flaw, But...

Custance is sugar and spice and everything nice.

For realsies. She represents all that is true and good in the world of "The Man of Law's Tale." She's young without being naive. She's humble and courteous. To top it all off, even though she's the most beautiful woman who has ever lived, she's never vain about it.

All this "benignytee," (goodness) however, doesn't prevent Custance from having to endure terrible hardship, including being twice put out to sea in a rudderless boat to drift aimlessly for years at a time. And yet, despite these trials, Custance confirms her true Christian piety: she never rages against God for her plight, but instead takes strength from his example of suffering.

When she prays to Him, it's only for the salvation of her immortal soul, and not for her physical preservation. Her pious lifestyle not only converts her hosts, but gains her a reputation for virtue that saves her from false accusation. It also eventually enables her to unite and reunite with her husband, King Alla.

Seriously, can she do no wrong?

Sucks to Be You, Custance

There's one thing that comes to mind when trying to describe Custance: long-suffering.

We mean that in two ways. First of all, girl's got problems. She faces just about every hardship in the book. She's falsely accused, left for dead, and generally beleagured.

But there's a flipside to that long-sufferingness. In the religious sense, it also involves a trust that God has a plan for His faithful. This trust allows a person to trust in His will without worrying, even in the worst of times. So we see Custance in her boat, waiting for death—or whatever God chooses for her. Throughout this drifting, she remains faithful to God—constant, even. Hence her name, Custance.

Insanely Saintly

Custance bears a remarkable resemblance to many saints, who like her, bore trials with great backbone. Think of Custance as a secular version of these saints, a translation of their virtues and suffering into a world of kings, queens, and exiled princesses.

How's that? Well, as a lesson to readers, she teaches readers how Christians were supposed to face adversity. Which, in case you didn't get the memo, is with virtue. Yep, her story is a testement to the powers and rewards of virtuous living. Just like those saints. She may not perform miracles, but her steadfastness in the face of a ridiculous amount of strife seems pretty miraculous to Shmoop.

Woe to Be a Woman

Let's rewind for a second.

We can't forget what got Custance into this mess in the first place. The origin of her trials draws attention to the powerless position of women in this society.

When she is carted off to Syria to be married to someone she doesn't know, she remarks that women are born to "thraldom and penance / And to been under mannes governance" (286-287). In other words, it's a man's world.

Well, to be more precise: it's God's world, too. The narrator views all human beings as helpless before God or fate. So it could be that he uses a woman, Custance, to symbolize this situation because women, more than men, must submit to the will of others. The patient, long-suffering Custance becomes not just a symbol of the powerlessness of women, but also the powerlessness of all human beings before God's plan.

At least, that's how the Man of Law sees it.