La Farge on Women and Providence
La Farge, Catherine. “Women and Chaucer’s Providence: The Clerk’s Tale and The Knight’s Tale.” From Medieval to Medievalism. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1992. 69-81.
La Farge writes that Emelye and Griselde have always been considered problematic by modern readers of The Canterbury Tales. Emelye is considered to flat a character to be considered the motivating heroine of The Knight’s Tale. Griselde’s perfection and imperviousness to her husband makes her more painful to readers than her husband is. La Farge argues that in order to understand these characters, medieval scholars cannot ignore Chaucer’s investigations of medieval social and religious institutions in the name of historical contextual understanding. What happens to Emelye and Griselde “can be read as an example—in both cases a rather extreme example—of the destiny of humankind” (69). Their futures threaten disaster for most of the plot but in the end is resolved. For both women, powerful men become the source of destiny and it is questioned if they are intended to appear God-like. La Farge argues in her essay that these two tales merge the uses of power in ways that justice in families, politics and the divine seem questionable.
Theseus’ behavior is mainly self-indulgent. He uses his power and freedom to continually change his mind. Palamon and Arcite are threatened with imprisonment, then death, then that death is withheld. He uses wealth and power merely because he can. He devises the theatre in imitation of God’s creation of the world, and in his final speech he abuses theatrical gestures that emphasize the gaps between the powerful Theseus and the helplessness of his subjects. His very nature of change keeps him from becoming an example of Boethian Provedence, which defined by a lack of change. Theseus is both lofty and human, for he revels in his power but is tolerant, occasionally merciful, and “fluid in mood” (73).
Emelye is an afterthought on Chaucer’s sentences, as if she is nearly forgotten throughout the story. She accepts the events of the story as if they had no effect on her. The notable exception to this is her plea to Diana to remain unwed, but that is a wish unfulfilled. Emelye’s blankness has been read as a reflection of her lovers’ desire or a sign of the romantic or anti-romantic elements of the tale. La Farge argues that the state of a lover symbolizes the helplessness of being human, and that womanhood mimics that helplessness.
Walter of The Clerk’s Tale is even less worthy of divinity than Theseus. Like Theseus, he is constantly changing his mind according to his own whims and his freedom to do so due to his powerful status. Griselde is characterized almost entirely by her lack of change, and is perhaps the best example of Boethian Providence because of this. Griselde and Walter are foils for each other, as he cannot stop changing and she will not change. At the end of the tale, it is Griselde that readers are asked to learn from. Griselde should be the example of divinity, yet it is Walter that readers are instructed to look at. La Farge believes that it is God who is freed from judgement because of the dissimilarities between God and Walter.
Chaucer uses women as modes for exploring power and freedom. Emelye and Griselde are controlled by the outside forces of Fortune, and they have little choice “except in the degree of enthusiasm they express (79). They make visible the effects of outside forces because they have no internal sources to guide them.
La Farge’s essay was not nearly as well written as expected. Her thesis indicated that her focus would be on women and Providence, but Emelye and Griselde were hardly mentioned. Both women played secondary roles in the essay to the dominating men of the story. While her thoughts on Walter and Theseus were interesting and insightful, she concentrated her efforts more on them than the women whom she claims to be interested in. If her goal was to discuss women and Providence, she failed in her discussion of the former. Emelye is only analyzed for one page in an eleven page essay, and Griselde seems to be used only as a comparison for her husband. La Farge offered no new insights onto Emelye’s character, with the exception being her mention of Emelye as an afterthought in Chaucer’s sentences.
Additionally, though La Farge focuses her analysis on The Knight’s Tale and The Clerk’s Tale, in the end of her essay she introduces The Merchant’s Tale and Troilus and Criseyde for brief analysis. Certainly if La Farge cannot find space to analyze Emelye she should not be adding more texts, especially not in the second to last paragraph of a published essay.
Catherine La Farge’s essay, “Women and Chaucer’s Providence: The Clerk’s Tale and The Knight’s Tale” had an interesting and unique title and thesis that was disregarded during the essay. If La Farge had discussed her female characters more, her essay could have been considered well-written, cohesive and persuasive. It had promise, but was unable to life up to its thesis.
