Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons^™

"My Trouthe For To Holde—Allas, Allas!": Dorigen And Honor In The Franklin’S Tale.”, Alison Ganze

Alison (Ganze) Langdon

Though others have explored in detail the deep and abiding concern with honor Arveragus and Aurelius evince in the tale, Dorigen’s own preoccupation with honor—no less significant in the tale’s exposition of trouthe—has not received much critical attention. Indeed, the question of Dorigen’s honor is often preempted by analysis of the (masculine) chivalric code of honor, which subsumes female honor within it. Yet an analysis of Dorigen’s promise to Aurelius and of her despairing complaint will reveal that she, too, participates in the same concept of trouthe that binds her male counterparts, one that privileges trouthe not simply as honor …