The Franklin's Tale

This piece was very interesting and harder for me to understand. The woman was put in a difficult situation, stuck between two men - her husband who left for two years and her neighbor who she promised to marry.

Dorigen's husband left for England for two years. In that time, she started talking to Aurelius, her neighbor. He loves her and will do anything to marry her. However, she is loyal to her husband and will not cheat on him. She presents him with the task of removing the black, sharp stones from the bay area. If he succeeds in this, which I presume she thinks is unlikely, she will marry him. In time, with help from a magician, Aurelius succeeds. He tells the woman, but she is torn. Her husband has returned and she wants to stay loyal to him, but she also wants to stay loyal to her neighbor and not break their promise.

She is unsure of what to do. She tells her husband the truth and he says to follow through with his promise to Aurelius. However, Aurelius will not marry her because he does not want to ruin their marriage. "And just as he sent her freely to me, so freely I sent her back to him. This is everything: there is no more to say." They all want to be virtuous and nobel. They all want to do the right thing. Because of the situation she is in, she decides that the only way she can be virtuous nad nobel is to kill her self, getting her out of both situations without breaking her loyalty or promise. All of the characters wanted a good reputation, to be nobel, loyal and virtuous. This led to none of them getting what they wanted, but they all did the right thing in thier minds.

This was very different than the other works we have read in this class which I liked and found interesting. I also liked how everyone wanted to remain loyal and virtuous, not ruining a marriage, not breaking a promise, or doing either as in the case of Dorigen.