Chaucer's Man of Law and His Tale: The Eccentric Design

Author / Editor
Farrell, Robert T.

Title
Chaucer's Man of Law and His Tale: The Eccentric Design

Published
Mary Salu and Robert T. Farrell, eds. J. R. R. Tolkien: Essays in Memoriam (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1979), pp. 159-72.

Description
Previous criticism often finds an unresolved tension between tale and teller in MLT and in the tale itself, leading a critic like Edward A. Block to declare the work "poor art." However, the admitted tensions within the tale between a feeling of despair and the slim hope of salvation, ultimately reveal the teller as "an acutely troubled intelligencer."

Alternative Title
J. R. R. Tolkien: Essays in Memoriam.

Chaucer Subjects
Man of Law and His Tale.