George Lyman Kittredge, "The Marriage Group"

George Lyman Kittredge, "The Marriage Group"

George Lyman Kittredge. "The Marriage Group." The Canterbury Tales; Fifteen Tales and the General Prolouge, 2005, p. 539-546.

In this criticism, Kittredge discusses the topic of marriage that is brought up between the Wife of Bath, the Friar, the Summoner, the Clerk, the Merchant, and the Franklin Prolouges and Tales. The essay starts off with the examination of the Wife of Bath character. The main focus that Kittredge focuses on her is the claim she makes at the end of her Tale about how men should subject themselves to their wives and that they shouldn't be lording over them. The rest of the essay examins how the Friar, Summoner, Clerk, Merchant, and Franklin tackle her statement through their own Tales. Kittredge writes most of the remainder of his essay on the Clerk's Tale and how much of an impact it had in retaliation to the Wife of Bath's statement of male subjectivity. Kittredge ends his essay on criticing the Franklin's Tale. Kittredge states that this was used by Chaucer to end the argument started by the Wife of Bath in which the Franklin states that married couples should be subject to love and not each other. The criticism is a study on what Chaucer is saying about marriage during the time in which he lived. Chaucer is writing this as a view on how marriage was seen in his time but not as a lesson according to Kittredge. Kittredge ends his critic with stating how this group is a study not a lesson on marriage.

-Patrick Cogar