In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the genre of each tale is an integral component of its respective meaning. The task of interpreting the meaning of a tale from its genre, however, is complicated by Chaucer's frequent deviation from the conventions of the genre. In some cases, Chaucer even uses the conventions of more than one genre per narrative; this is the case of the story of the Man of Law. In "The Narrative Style of the Lawman's Tale" Paul M. Clogan defines the genre of the tale as a "hagiographic novel" (217). That is, the short story genre straddles the line between a medieval novel and saint legend (pseudo-biographical narratives of the lives of saints). The story can be considered a novel, in the sense that it tells of adventures in "probe" lands and has a protagonist on a mission. He is also not particularly interested in working within the confines of realism, as his episodic events of melodrama are numerous: Custance, the protagonist, escapes rape, massacre, and false accusations. Unlike conventional romances of the period, however, the tale of the Man of Law does not focus on courtly love, nor is it concerned with the chivalric traditions of other medieval romances. As a piece of hagiography or legend of a saint, the tale also falls short. Although Custance is portrayed as an ideal Christian who willingly endures the suffering of the mortal world and never questions her faith in God, she is ultimately neither martyred nor canonized. The story, therefore, is not at the same time a novel and the legend of a saint, but rather a complicated mix of the two genres. Because of this conflation, the story of the Man of Law is neither a love story nor the legend of a saint. The lingering question of why Chaucer conflates these two genres, then, is left to his audience. While Clogan states that the hagiographic novel as a genre was very popular during the medieval era, and believes that it "instills in [Chaucer's] narrator a new kind of truth closely tied to lyrical modes" (231), I believe that the fusion of the two genres is done in such an ironic way. Hagiographic romanticism, with its elevated style, emphasizes the claims of the Man of Law. It reflects the attitudes of the Man of Law but, more importantly, it acts as a smokescreen; the genre uses religion and romance to mask what the tale is really about: the patriarchal need for women's subordination to men. The Man of Law uses the genre of the hagiographic novel as one would use rhetoric; convinces through style and genre. Her narrative justifies the oppression of women without doing so explicitly. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay There has been a lot of critical attention on the congruence of the Lawman's tale with his heritage. When compared to a sententious tale like Melibee's Tale, Custance's tale does not seem suitable for the narrator. One would expect from a lawyer a story on the objective truths of law, perhaps told in prose, and not the hagiographic novel told by the Man of Law. It could be argued, however, that since medieval British law was very closely tied to Christianity, the religious overtones of a saint's legend would have been appropriate for the narrator. The tale, therefore, could be seen as a confession of the Man of Law's devotion to Christianity. Upon closer inspection, however, it becomes clear that the Man of Law's account and the narrator's description of him in the General Prologue emphasize his miserly attitude, rather than reflecting religious piety. See you firstgiven the description of the Man of Law it seems to be positive. When audiences first meet the Lawman in the General Prologue, he is described as a lawyer who knows his craft well. Photographic memory was a characteristic that every good fourteenth-century lawyer should have possessed; because a lawyer's training consisted of memorizing lessons without the aid of textbooks, his memory and note-taking ability would have to be extremely profitable for the Lawman to complete his training in the legal sciences (Sailor ). The Man of Law, therefore, is described as one who is fully competent as a lawyer, for "There is none that can pluck his writing; / And every statut koude he pleyn by rote" (323-4). Throughout his description, however, the word "justice" is only used to describe his position as a judge (314), and never used to describe his morality or ethics. Instead, the Man of Law is illustrated as a person who is primarily concerned with the accumulation of wealth. He is described as "full of excellence" (311), which is meant as a compliment to his professional competence; however, the word "riche" is also a play on words that signals Chaucer's audience to notice the wealth the Man of Law has accumulated since becoming a lawyer. His personal wealth is emphasized when the audience is told that "of honors and robes he had many" (317). Because medieval lawyers were unwilling to help people in need of their services unless they were paid, there was a certain resentment that common people had towards them. Litigants without lawyers were almost always guaranteed to lose their cases, and were therefore forced to pay lawyers large sums of money. It is no wonder, then, that medieval lawyers were often described as “somewhat inhuman and eager to sell their services to the highest bidder” (Cantor 310). Because of the immense time it took to become a lawyer, they often emerged eager to earn as much money as possible in a short period of time (ibid.). Chaucer's characterization of the Lawman as a person concerned with personal gain, therefore, is in accord with medieval public opinion of lawyers. The General Prologue can be seen as a satirical dig at the legal profession, as it shows that the Lawman is more concerned with profits and personal gain than with justice. his indignant views towards the poor reveal that he was a man of little sympathy: If you are poor, farewell your reverence! Yet of the wise man take this phrase: "All the days of poor men have been wikke." Be war, so, um, you've come to that prikke! (116-9) The Man of Law's deterministic view of goods reveals his perverted sense of morality. The destitute are shown to be unworthy of "reverence" and are depicted as "wikke". While “wikke” can be translated as “miserable,” it is more likely to translate to “evil.” That is, for the Man of Law, poverty represents vice and, as a corollary, wealth represents wisdom and virtue. The fact that the Lawman's tale is borrowed from a merchant, therefore, follows the general logic of the Lawman's characterization. , as Chaucer clearly draws comparisons between the two states. The Man of Law turns out to be a merchant under the guise of respectability and learned hypocrisy. The narrator in the General Prologue also sees through the Man of Law's appearances and realizes that "he [the Man of Law] seemed more of a curmudgeon than he was" (322; emphasis added). Likewise, the story of the Man of Law, like himself, is a story in disguise: it is a storywhich exploits women under the guise of religious and moral presumptions. In the story, it is made explicit that medieval women, even royalty ---are slaves to men. From Custance's first speech we realize that she is no fool, as she recognizes her own precarious situation in society: "I wrecche woman, no fors if I pin! / Women are born for slavery and penance, / And to be under the rule of mannes" (285-7). Custance acknowledges the fact that women's lives are not considered important in her society. It is proven that even the death of the emperor's daughter has "no fors". Although it could be argued that Custance speaks of the death of the corporeal body as unimportant, thus implying that men's lives are also unimportant, it is clear that his discourse is gendered. It is the "[women" who must suffer, and it is the "government of the mans" to which they are subjected. Women, therefore, are "wretched" because they are considered simply as an object that man (the subject) can use and exchange. Throughout the entire story, Custance is transferred from one man's possession to another's. Although Custance recognizes the unfairness of such practices, he tolerates them because of his faith; he puts himself completely at the mercy of God. The Man of Law believes that suffering is in God's plan, and therefore rejecting it is a rejection of Providence. All people, therefore, regardless of gender, are unable to control their own destiny. The rudderless ship onto which Custance is loaded by the Syrians, therefore, is a metaphor for life: no one is able to direct the outcomes of their own life. The Lawman believes, however, that women are even more powerless to control their own lives than men. He consistently portrays the female sex as vulnerable and fragile: “How can this strange woman have this strength / Take on herself to still defend this renegade?” (932-3). The Lawman constructs a fiction that women are inherently incapable of protecting themselves. This fiction justifies the passing of women from man to man, as it is implied in the story that men and their institutions, such as Lawman and the law, are protectors of women. When Custance is accused of killing Hermengyld, and stands before Alla, the king and judge of her case, the Man of Law laments that Custance "has no champion" (631). Christ (symbol of religion) is the "champioun" alluded to; however, the Man of Law also refers to himself (symbol of the law) as Custance's possible defender, since, as a lawyer, he could have helped her in her legal battle. Although it is Christ who comes to his rescue, the Man of Law implies that the law could have been his champion too. It is clear that law and religion are inextricably linked concepts in the mind of the Man of Law. Women, in her mind, must be supported by men, law or religion. However, the logic of these implications is tautological, as Custance must be protected by men and the law, as it is a man who falsely accuses her, and it is the law that threatens to kill her; what Custance really needs to be protected from, then, are her protectors: the institutions of a patriarchy. Women, therefore, are weak because they are oppressed by men, and not because they are intrinsically so. The Man of Law never recognizes him. He willingly ignores that in the second part of the story it is the men who are weak and need to be protected (by the sultana). Likewise, it is Alla who needs to be protected from the wiles of her mother Donegild. The Man of Law reconciles this contradiction in his logic by attacking the femininity of these women. For him they are almost no longer women. In describing Donegild, the Man ofLegge calls her "mannysh" (782), and explains the sultana's behavior by calling her a "serpent under femynyntee" (360). That is, these women are aggressive because they are not feminine; they are masculine beneath their feminine bodies. The sultana is evil because she refuses to submit to her children and instead exercises her own power. From the perspective of the Man of Law, passivity is a feminine virtue, and not necessarily a Christian one. He never complains about the violence of the male characters in the text. The Roman Emperor's massacre of the Syrians is mentioned only in passing and not in a chastising manner. It is clear, therefore, that only women can tolerate wrongs, while men have the freedom to actively take revenge. Because law and patriarchy are linked in symbiosis, the Man of Law is invested in protecting the contradictory ideals of his society. The telling of the story in the hagiographic novel, then, follows logically, as the genre of a saint's legend idealizes the passive endurance of suffering, and the conventions of the novel often employ the literary device of the damsel in distress. Hagiographic novels, therefore, romanticize the passive female protagonist who leaves her life completely dependent on men. The genre, like its narrator's heritage, is a fusion of the sacred and the profane; it is a rhetorical device that obscures the division between religious and secular ideals. The Man of Law uses the genre of the hagiographic novel to justify the exchange of women between men. In "Commodities Among Themselves," Luce Irigaray states that "[t]he exchanges on which patriarchal societies are based occur exclusively between men. Women, signs, commodities, and currency always pass from one man to another" (575 ). What Irigaray points out is that in a patriarchy women are commodified, and necessarily so, since the very structure of a patriarchy requires their exchange. Therefore, it is the structure of a patriarchy, of which Custance's world is included, that oppresses women. Women are exchanged for the benefit of men. Although Custance must marry the sultan of Syria to convert him and his subjects to Christianity, her marriage also secures a political alliance between Rome (her father's state) and Syria. It is passed from one patriarch to another for men to bond politically. The source of the Lawman's disgust for incestuous subjects, then, becomes apparent. In his prologue, the Man of Law states that Chaucer would never tell the story of Canacee or Apollonius of Tyre, because such subjects are "unkynde abhomynacions" (88). The incest taboo that the Man of Law calls "unkynde" or unnatural is actually, as Gayle Rubin rightly points out, "a mechanism to ensure that such exchanges [the exchange of women for men] occur between families and between groups." (542). . That is, incestuous relationships would prevent women from being exchanged with outgroups. If Custance had had an incestuous relationship with her father, for example, she could not have been given to the sultan of Syria and trade would have been made impossible between the two nations, which the Man of Law with his interest in profit surely he would have noticed. The Man of Law's use of the word "abhomynaciouns" also indicates that he regards incest not only as an offense against family relations, but also as an offense against relations between nations, since the word "nacioun" can be translated as "family" and "nation". As the Man of Law's prologue indicates, he is only interested in telling a story of good women. The Man of Law's invocation of the natural way of things, then, is only a symptom of his investment in the status quo of patriarchy. He is interested in creating a role model that other women can imitate. That he understands>