The Clerk's Tale
Kelsey Kane-Ritsch
Shannon Lee
Gregory Chin
Sachi Kawabata
Caroline Chang
Brandon Cheung
Period 1
Chaucer's Envoy
Summary
• Chaucer explains at the conclusion of the tale that perhaps
women should not be as obedient as Griselda, but that
everyone should be as perfect in their constancy as she.
• In being able to perfectly bear every act of unkindness and
cruelty by her husband, Griselda displays the aspects of a true
Christian.
• According to Chaucer, God tests man in order to allow him to
rise to his fullest potential, and no such test is more than any
mortal can bear.
Chaucer's Envoy
Analysis
•
Chaucer’s Envoy encourages women to take control and not be as obedient and
submissive as Griselda. Chaucer then advises the women in his audience to assert
their independence.
•
Chaucer’s words should not be taken literally.
o There are clues within the text that reveal his sarcasm, such as when he refers to
women as being “stronger than camels,” and “fierce as Indian tigers” (355).
•
The Envoy to the Clerk’s tale is especially significant given his treatment of the Wife
of Bath. He sarcastically restates her argument.
•
Wife of Bath’s argument: women are strong and are capable of holding the power in
a relationship.
•
Chaucer makes her argument seem so absurd that he is actually siding with
Griselda’s constancy and patience
•
Envoy = a jab at the Wife of Bath’s claim that women are truly capable of being
equals to men.
Satire
•
Chaucer's main purpose in telling the Clerk's Tale is to criticize social standards of
the time, specifically the inferiority women and the poor were expected to submit
themselves to
•
The Clerk's Tale is filled with overstatement (specifically overstated characters):
o Griselda is characterized as the ideal woman- beautiful, poised, and
unwaveringly submissive
o Walter is a Lord who uses and abuses his powers as a man to the fullest extent
in testing his wife's loyalty/obedience
o Janicula, Griselda's father, represents the ideal feudal servant- places the
desires of his lord over the love of his own daughter
•
Chaucer also draws a parallel between submission to men and lords & absolute
submission to the will of God
•
In the Envoy, Chaucer sarcastically tells women to assert themselves in front of
their husbands, and not allow "such humility to nail your tongues" (355).
•
While Chaucer did not want women to assert themselves aggressively with men, he
did want them to be confident in the face of their Maker, and in the face of their
superiors
Theme(s)
Of Clerk's Tale:
Of Chaucer's Envoy:
The Clerk concludes his tale by
telling women to be constant in
the face of adversity and in their
faith of God, not to imitate
Griselda’s perfect obedience.
The Clerk is aware that women
like Griselda are very rare and
emphasizes women to not be like
Griselda because she is too
patient and loyal.
He advises wives not to “nail” down
their tongues, but to attack their
husbands and “be fierce as Indian
tigers” (Chaucer 355). However,
Chaucer is sarcastically criticizing the
Wife of Bath’s overpowering nature
over men. In reality, he portrays a
message to women that they should
not be as weak and submissive as
Griselda but also, not make their
husbands miserable like the Wife of
Bath does.
Genre
• The genre of the Clerk's Tale is a Moral Tale. The moral: having patience
through adversity and consistency in action.
• Characterizes the Clerk:
o well read (uses Petrarch's story)
o religious importance (moral importance)
o puts cleric in a positive light. (Morally good)
• Genre purpose shifts according to speaker:
o Clerk: uses the moral tale to emphasize the immoral behavior of the
Wife of Bath
o Chaucer: Satirically uses the moral tale as an example of extreme
virtues, but commends the concept of patience. Validates both ideas
of patience/obedience and individual strength in woman
Characterization:
Walter
- Determined
“…there are folk in such a state of mind/That, if they finally resolve to take/Some
certain course to which they feel inclined,/Cannot hold back, but fettered to their
stake,/Hold to their purposes and cannot slake/Their fevered wills” (341)
- Demanding
- Obsessive (esp. with testing Griselda)
“The marquis, in obsession for his wife,/Longed to expose her constancy to test./He
could not throw the thought away or rest,/Having a marvelous passion to assay
her;/Needless, God knows, to frighten and dismay her” (333).
- Insecure
“…[feeding] his prepossession…” (334)
Griselda
- Loving
- Obedient and submissive
“…if I knew my death itself would ease you,/Then I would die, and gladly die, to
please you” (339)
- Faithful and virtuous
- Humble, even self deprecating at times
“…never worthy, never in [her] life,/To be [his] chambermaid, much less [his]
wife/…[She] never thought [her]self the mistress here,/Rather a servant, humble
and sincere...” (344)
- Patient
The Clerk
- Well educated
- Desperate for knowledge
- Unselfish about his knowledge
“…gladly would he learn, and gladly teach” (11).
- Critical of the Wife of Bath
- Critical of Walter
“…it could succeed/Only in evil; what could be the gain/In putting her to needless
fear and pain?” (334)
Literary Devices:
Foreshadowing
• Walter warns Griselda that she must obey him,
foreshadowing that he will test her
• Griselda humbly agrees to obey
• Reveals character:
o Walter  conniving, power-hungry, needs to feel superior
o Griselda  submissive, obedient, meek, faithful
 shows no character development as she
continues to acquiess to his demands
Dramatic Irony
- Griselda gets excited about seeing the new
marchioness, but does not know that she is the new
marchioness.
o Reveals Griselda's modesty
- Griselda and the townspeople believe the new wife is
more fitting without knowing that she is Griselda's
daughter.
o meek and constant acceptance of fate without
question
 Petrarch's interpretation - Walter represents
God and Griselda represents the people submitting
to the will of God.
Religious Allusion
• The Clerk's Tale is an allusion to the Book
of Job.
• Walter represents God as he puts
Griselda, who represents Job, through
many trials to test her loyalty.
• Griselda = faithful, selfless, virtuous
• Tale serves as a moral guide extolling the
importance of constant adherence to God's
will.
Irony
“‘All thanks to you, my dearest lord,’ said she,
‘For you have saved my children, you alone!’” (352).
• Ironic because Walter is the one who took the
children originally
• Accentuates Walter's cruelness of putting her
through such terrible trials.
• Motif of Obedience: Griselda continues to show
undying loyalty to her husband without questioning
him.
Simile
“O stormy people, frivolous and fickle,
Void of true judgment, turning like a vane,
Whom every novelty and rumour tickle,
How like the moon you are to wax and wane…” (349).
• Mob mentality of the townspeople as they suddenly
throw their support from one wife to another.
• Irony - the townspeople think that the new wife is
better and nobler, but she actually comes from the
same blood as Griselda
• Townspeople = shallow and noncommittal
Repetition
• Griselda repeats the word "your" when speaking to
Walter
o Creates an image of Griselda and her daughter as
inanimate possessions
• "Yours" to "spare or kill"
o Creates an image of Griselda and her daughter as
animals
 Reveals the lack of emotional connection
between Griselda and Walter
Personification/Allusion
“Imitate Echo, she that never fled
In silence, but returns you hail for hail,
Never let innocence besot your head,
But take the helm yourselves and trim the sail” (355).
• Transforms an auditory echo into a person
• Chaucer is sarcastically mocking the Wife of Bath's
belief that women should be in charge of men.
• His extreme depiction of her behavior makes it seem
ridiculous (especially for the time)
• Encourages women to adopt Griselda's traits of
humility, obedience, and patience to some degree.
Rhetorical Questions
• Clerk's interjections question Walter's actions
o voice of reason to contrast Walter's
immoral methods
• Clerk demands "what could be the gain?"
o Reveals that only Walter benefits by feeding his
superiority complex
• Clerk commends Griselda's perfect constancy but
disapproves of Walter's trivial tests
• Griselda's perseverance should inspire mankind to
accept and fulfill God's fewer and more reasonable
tests