Custance is the standard of womanhood by which all other women are judged in "The Man of Law's Tale." She's pretty, pleasing, polite, and pious. Her most important trait, though, is another P-word: her long-suffering passivity. Our girl Custance accepts whatever life throws at her as the will of God. Accordingly, women who attempt to control their fates, like the mothers-in-law, are labeled un-feminine. What's feminine, as the character of Custance makes clear, is for women to be "under mannes governance" (287) whether it makes them happy or not. Yet the situation of Custance, who laments her unhappy plight as the fate of all women, draws attention to the suffering women must endure because of their subjection to men.
Questions About Women and Femininity
- How does the character of Custance set up the expectations of an ideal female in "The Man of Law's Tale"? Who fulfills these expectations? Who does not?
- How do the Sultaness and Donegild give up their claims to femininity, from the narrator's perspective? How does he punish them for their actions? How does the "Tale" punish them?
- How does Custance characterize the position of women in her speech to her father? Does the narrator agree with her?
Chew on This
Custance's characterization of her marriage to the Sultan as a plight she must endure because of her father's will draws attention to the suffering of all women "under mannes governance" (287).
"The Man of Law's Tale" punishes Donegild and the Sultaness because of their refusal to yield authority to men.