This tale focuses on the adventures of Constance, making it the first chivalric romance we’ve read where the female character isn’t a transitional figure. Up until this point, the most significant roles that female characters played were to serve as tools for pushing the plot forward, rather than be the focus of the plot itself. As the Man of Law’s Tale progresses, Constance’s story takes on characteristics of several genres which ultimately emphasizes her internal stability despite the unpredictability of the world around her.
Chaucer writes, “But I lete al his storie passen by;/ Of Cunstance is my tale specially,” (ll. 1124-1125). Constance’s name reflects her most prominent attribute and she stays devoted to God despite the crazy situations that dominate the story. Her faith in God is a display of chivalry, and her demure nature also falls in line with the medieval ideals of femininity. She has all the virtues that would justify her role as the protagonist, but the fact remains that this story is about a woman, and it seems that speaker employs tricks from different genres to sell his tale.
Aside from a romance, this tale could also read like a hagiographic story, a comedy, or a court case. The way that Chaucer describes Constance’s experience drifting out at sea before she reaches Rome reads like many of the stories from the Golden Legend. He writes, “But blisful Marie heelp hire right anon;/ For with hir struglyng wel and myghtily/ The theef fil over bord al sodeynly,/ And in the see he dreynte for vengeance; and thus hath Crist unwemmed kept Cunstance,” (ll. 920-924). This moment shows how God directly influences events to protect the protagonist, and in this case, Constance earns that protection it because she retains a pure spirit as she drifts between circumstances that are out of her control. She is rewarded for her faith and positive example of religious chivalry. The tale could also read like a comedy based on its plot structure. This offers a way to frame her odyssey as a journey that explores the dichotomies of her historical period. As for reading this as a testimonial, the man of law says, “Ne phislyas, ne termes queinte of lawe./ Ther is but Latyn in my mawe!” (ll. 1189-1190). The structures that the speaker uses consistently throughout the Tale reflect intimate knowledge of rhetoric and have similar constructions as some of Cicero’s speeches. This also gives it a sense of historical continuity and also provides undertones that hint that the speaker is defending Constance while he tells her story. Although the world is against her for most of the Tale, there are significant forces out to protect her.
As a woman who’s largely alone and up against some significant odds, especially as a female protagonist, Constance remains the carefully protected center of attention throughout the Man of Law’s Tale. She defies a lot of boundaries, and that gets reflected into the ambiguity of the narrative structure. Violence is a major threat to her purity and survival, and subtle lines like, “King Alla, which that hadde his mooder slayn,” (ll. 987) remind the reader that Constance’s world is actually extremely volatile.
While Maddie points out a true point that this is the rare tale where a woman is the protagonist, we must not let go of the fact that the woman is not the all powerful protagonist like most of the male figures have been. On the contrary, as the center of the tale, attention is drawn to the fact that as a woman she has no power and that she is still under the control of men and they are in charge of her destiny. She laments: "Women are born to slave and to repent,
ReplyDeleteAnd to be subject to man's government."
I think, at Troy, when Pyrrhus broke the wall;
When Ilium burned; when Thebes fell, that city;
At Rome, for all the harm from Hannibal,
Who vanquished Roman arms in campaigns three-
I think was heard no weeping for pity
As in the chamber at her leave-taking;
Yet go she must, whether she weep or sing" which goes to show that although she is central to the tale, the point of her centrality is to show her lack of power in the power structure. The interesting point is that although she has little power over her own destiny in the realm of man (because she is made to go wherever the males send her) she takes control over her destiny in the realm of the holy and metaphysical so that she can control her afterlife. This is what makes her a wise and worthy protagonist because she fights her powerlessness on Earth and attains her own power.
Being the first text we’ve worked with in which a feminine character holds such a powerful role as the protagonist, it’s interesting to witness the effect of the rebellious matriarchal society upon her life as an individual and the more dominant patriarchal law on her life as a whole. More often than not, male society is considered to dominate that of female society as opposed to there being an existing female society overshadowed by that of a patriarchal one. If viewed through this lense, the tragedy in which “The Sowdan and the Cristen everichone/ Been al tohewe and striked at the bord,/ But it were oonly dame Custance alone” and because “The mooder was an elf, by aventure. Ycomen, by charmes or by sorcerie, And every wight hateth hir compaignye.”, Sowdanesse and Donegild becomes more than women, assuming greater roles than the men in the text, as antagonists. Despite this role reversal between the genders, the role of God is not lessened from its normative and all powerful nature as “This knight was slayn for his untrouthe”, similar to the influential power of God we saw in the Golden Legend although here it is a bit more deadly. She does indeed have the qualities which allow us to recognize her as capable of being the “heroine” of the text, even worthy of divine protection.
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