The Squire of Chaucer's 'Franklin's Tale' -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 20:44:12 04/06/08 Sun
Author: JPJ II
Subject: The Squire of Chaucer's 'Franklin's Tale'

In The Franklin's Tale, a squire falls in love with an absent knight's wife. After he confesses his love to her in a garden, the good wife promptly laughs and tells him that he can have her when he makes the rocks at the foot of a near by drop disappear. Sure enough, an illusionist takes care of the rocks, and the wife is left in a tricky spot. She cries to her husband, and he tells her to keep her word. The squire, upon learning that the knight sent his wife over freely, sends the wife back to her husband. I've posted a part of my thesis here, giving a part of my analysis on the actions of the squire. Any thoughts would be helpful.

The desires of the squire remain firmly fixated on the desires of his model, Averegus. Each of the squire�s actions is predicated upon his desire to be equal to his model in all things, and any turn in the character of the squire represents then a turn in his perception of the desires of his model, Averegus. The squire, Aureilius, occupies an awkward position in the tale: society has encouraged him to imitate the Knight, Averegus, in all things, yet this very imitation of Averegus nearly leads to violence between the Knight and the Squire as Aurelius imitates his Knight�s desire for Dorigen, Averegus� wife. The Knight begins the tale as an external, or impersonal, mediator for the desires of the Squire, but Averegus becomes an internal, or personal, mediator for Aurelius when distant, courtly love becomes close, near-adulterous desire. Averegus, rather than allowing the personal rivalry over Dorigen to lead to hostility, freely gives Dorigen over to Aurelius. Aurelius sends Dorigen back to Averegus, appropriating one of two perceived gestures by his model: from the Squire�s perspective, his model has either lost interest in Dorigen, or has shown great virtue and compassion in allowing her to freely and abide by her word of honor. Should Aurelius perceive the former gesture, his refusal to take Dorigen could be attributed to his appropriation of a perceived disinterest in Dorigen on the part of his model. Dorigen has lost all worth in his eyes because she has no worth in the eyes of his model. On the other hand, Should Aurelius intuit Averegus� lack of covetousness as an act of virtue and compassion, Aurelius� response would stem from his continued imitation of his model�s virtue; he would be emulating, as all good squires should, the knightly character of his model.

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