Marriage Ceremonies and Property in The Canterbury Tales
- Author / Editor
- Jacobs, Kathryn.
Marriage Ceremonies and Property in The Canterbury Tales
- Published
- Mediaevalia 22.2: 245-63, 1999.
- Description
- Chaucer evinces awareness of marriage law, in particular the necessity of a church ceremony to secure property rights. Wives with a legally unassailable right to property (May in MerT, the Wife of Bath, Alisoun in MilT, Cecilie in SNT) are in a much stronger marital position than Griselde, whose husband engineers a contract marriage in ClT. Two exceptions are Custance, since the pagans in MLT are too far from Rome to fear consequences, and Dorigen, whose wedding details are omitted because, in the exemplary world of FranT, she needs no legal protection.
- Chaucer Subjects
- Canterbury Tales--General.
- Miller and His Tale.
- Man of Law and His Tale.
- Wife of Bath and Her Tale.
- Clerk and His Tale.
- Merchant and His Tale.
- Franklin and His Tale.
- Second Nun and Her Tale.