Reading Guide Questions for Consideration

A. Is the Franklin's idea of marriage faulty? Does he threaten male supremacy?

B. How does the Tale fit the Franklin? Does Chaucer seem more scientist or believer in magic? How does the Franklin feel with respect to astrology?

C. What do you think about Dorigen's solution to her problem?

D. Why does Dorigen tell so many stories of maidens and wives dying rather than suffering dishonor?

E. Are Dorigen and Arveragus the perfect husband and wife?

F. Is Aurelius a consistent character?

G. What is the answer to the Franklin's question at the end of the tale?

1. What relationship(s) do you see between the Franklin's Tale and the Wife of Bath's Tale?

2. Some critics feel the tale is full of moral absurdities. Tell ways in which the tale seems critical of courtly love.

3. Do you agree, and why or why not, with critic Mann who claims that "the poem dramatizes the triumph of the ideal of a high 'gentilesse,' of virtue, the power of a fused chivalric and Christian ideal firmly and rationally embraced to overcome and transform selfishness and evil"?

It may help to know that Chaucer himself defines "gentilesse" as loving virtue and fleeing vice. To virtue belongs dignity, compassion, freedom, cleanliness of spirit, industriousness, diligence, and honesty.

4. In the Pardonner's Tale who or what is the old man?

5. Is the old man good or evil?

6. Is the Pardonner good or evil?

7. Why does he expose so much of himself?

8. Why does the Pardonner try to sell admittedly fake relics to the host?