Clerk Study Questions

For thinksheet, please answer 4.

1.  Why does Walter test Griselda?  See esp. lines 449-462;616-624;785-791.

2.  How does Griselda react to what she believes to be the murder of her children?  See esp. lines    554-560; 680-686.   How does she react to Walter’s ostensible divorce of her?  871-896

3.  What is the Clerk’s view of women’s patience?  See lines 935-939.

According to his envoy, how should women behave?

4.  Is this story about women and obedience or about human obedience to God?   See lines 1142-1148 and provide a concise argument to support your view. 

5.  How are Walter’s people described in the text? See lines 127-129; 995-1001

6.  How does this story relate to other tales we have read, particularly the Wife of Bath’s Tale?

How would you compare the views of marriage in the two tales? 

7.  Look at lines 21-38 of the Clerk’s Prologue?  What types of views are presented here?  How is the author viewed?  How does this compare to the Man of Law’s mention of Chaucer?