The Canterbury Tales Group

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nowaynohow149
nowaynohow149
Student
College - Freshman

In "The Wife of Bath's Tale" and "The Miller's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales, what are solutions that Chaucer gives for problems in marriage?

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Posted by nowaynohow149 on Saturday February 7, 2009 at 7:03 PM and tagged with marriage, millers tale, the canterbury tales, themes, wife of baths tale.

Answers:


  1. amy-lepore Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Chaucer's Canterbury Tales is definitely a commentary on Medieval life and a satire of the duality of people--especially those in the church who were expected to behave one way but more often than not behaved quite the opposite way.

    In the case of "The Wife of Bath's Tale" and "The Miller's Tale" we have excellent examples of Medieval humor and wit.  Both tales deal to some extent with marriage, but not so much with solutions to the problems presented.  The Wife tells a tale about a Knight who is forced to marry a old hag who helped him answer the question "What do women want most?" Once he gives in and decides to treat her with respect and as an equal (the motto of the worthy Wife of Bath, by the way) the hag disappears and becomes a beautiful, faithful wife.  So, in essence, the answer to marital problems according to the Wife is to treat the female as an equal in the marriage--give her the respect she deserves and allow her to make decisions.  Problems solved.

    The Miller is a different story altogether.  The "problem" in the marriage in this story is that the wife lusted after someone else, and she was lucky her husband was gullible and witless so she could pursue her lover.  Rather than celebrating marriage and working on solving issues between men and women, this tale celebrates opportunity, appetite, youth, and cleverness.   There is no real solution to the problem of adultery offered in this tale. 

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/canterbury/
    http://www.enotes.com/canterbury/millers-tale-summary-ana...
    http://www.enotes.com/canterbury/wife-baths-tale-summary-...

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    Posted by amy-lepore on Saturday February 7, 2009 at 7:52 PM

  2. ms-charleston-yawp
    ms-charleston-yawp Teacher
    High School - 11th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    Best answer as selected by question asker.

    Although I have nothing to add in regards to the solutions from "The Wife of Bath's Tale" from the previous answer, I would like to expand on the possibility for a solution provided by Chaucer through "The Miller's Tale."  This tale, of course, is all about adultery.  Even though there can be no solution to unfaithfulness in marriage, Chaucer does give us an interesting opinion in the words of the Miller (not in "The Miller's Tale" itself, but in "The Words Between the Host and the Miller" beforehand).  The Host, after warning us that the Miller is a cad and a "churl," does share these words from the Miller:  "One shouldn't be too inquisitive in life / Either about God's secrets or one's wife. / You'll find Gods' plenty all you could desire; / Of the remainder, better not enquire."  In other words, don't ask too many questions or you may get answers you don't want to hear.  Wives have secrets, as does God, says the Miller.  Both types of secrets, then, are sacred and better left unsaid.  This is as close a solution as can be offered in regards to this fabliau.  The irony is that the Miller has quite a few secrets, too, as evidenced by his preceding quote.  He says that he doesn't "think myself a cuckold, just because . . . / I'm pretty sure I'm not and never was."  The Miller's solution, then, approved by Chaucer:  don't ask, don't tell.  Ha!

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/canterbury/introduction
    http://www.enotes.com/canterbury/millers-tale-summary-ana...

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    Posted by ms-charleston-yawp on Saturday February 7, 2009 at 8:31 PM

  3. bank4320
    bank4320 Teacher
    Middle School

    eNotes Editor

    The "solution" for the problem of marriage should not be looked for in "The Miller's Tale" or "The Wife of Bath's Tale" but rather in "The Merchant's Tale" and "The Franklin's Tale".  In "The Merchant's Tale" there is a picture of a somewhat happy marriage, though it is not the marriage of Sir January and Lady May but rather the marriage of Pluto and Proserpina.  In this marriage, both manage to work out active compromises which ultimately cancel out the purposes of both--Pluto wants to make Sir January aware of Lady's May's disloyalty, but Prosperina will only hear of it if Sir January immediately forgets all that he has seen--but they nonetheless manage to live with such self-negating compromises because when Prosperina says "For sothe, I wol no lenger yow contrarie." she speaks for both of them.

    Sources:
    http://www.enotes.com/merchants-tale-salem/merchants-tale

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    Posted by bank4320 on Saturday February 7, 2009 at 11:53 PM