Oh Franklin

I must admit that the Franklin's tale was a bit of a surprise for me.  I was definitely expecting Dorigen to stray from her husband when he had sailed away.  I thought something would go wrong from the very beginning where their relationship was described to be equal and that they would obey each-other and be humble towards one another... we would not know about this if it didn't cause problems in the end.  

But I was wrong!  The problem was different and Dorigen was tortured by "honor" and so was Arveragus and they did something totally unexpected.  I wasn't expected after Arveragus's release of his wife for Aurelius to feel the way he did and let Dorigen go also.

I won't lie - I wasn't captivated by the story.  It was not my style, so unrealistic.  But I still want to know how the magician/scholar made the rocks disappear.  Maybe I'm not remembering it correctly but what exactly did he do?

Someone else put a little more thought into the tale than I did.  Read a little bit (or maybe a lot) about someone's theory on the tale and the correlating style of medieval English writers at In The Middle.

Another thing about the Franklin's Tale that is of interest to me is the whole concept of marriage.  Averagus and Dorigen's intent for the marriage was supposed to give Dorigen more power.  Or was it?  I don't think that Dorigen really had much power at all.  She ended up being stuck at home and whining about how much her life sucked after Averagus left.  I think she was hopeless and powerless.   

The Franklin's Tale has multiple themes.  Some of these themes are honor, marriage, and power.  I found an interesting article about Chaucer's intended message about marriage in the Franklin's Tale with Chaucer's Real Response to Marriage.