Mythic Sequence in the "Man of Law's Tale."

Description: Problems of tone--comic versus tragic--make the reader of MLT uneasy. There is also the problem of the weakness of the "literal narrative and the heavy-handed intrusions of the author." One can discern meaningful form, however, if one observes that the four supernatural interventions in the tale correspond to the first four (or five) stages in the "archetypal process for salvation." Constance's prayer establishes a "continuity between the mythic past and the experiential present." Christ appears as her champion, reflecting the 'ransom' theory of salvation. Constance is in turn the Christian soul; the Virgin, "a 'propugnatrix' in a world made damnable by women"; and mankind. Chaucer modifies Trevet to underscore this mythic pattern. The narrative, thus understood, fits the narrator, who reflects the moral fervor of the English middle class in the fourteenth century.