Stewart Justman, "The Reeve's Tale and the Honor of Men."

by Dorijane Birrer
Web posted at 2:43 PM on 5/2/96 from 26.salc.wsu.edu.

Justman, Stewart. "The Reeve's Tale and the Honor of Men." Studies inShort Fiction 32 (Winter 1995): 21-7.

Cuckoldry and Folk Justice

1. The medieval practice of charivari is one societal response tocuckoldry.

2. Justman sees the charivari as having two competing functions:

--it upholds social norms by deriding those who offend against them

--it mocks authority in its parody of official ceremony

The Miller's Tale as Textual Charivari

1. The carpenter (John) of The Miller's Tale twice offends againstsocial norms:

--he marries a woman much younger than himself

--he fails to uphold his authority and dignity as a male

2. Justman points out duality in the Miller's ridicule of John:

--it upholds the values of a patriarchal society

--it overthrows the principles of hierarchy in The Knight's Tale

3. Oswald the Reeve views the Miller's story (and the collective laughter ofthe Canterbury pilgrims) as a charivari against himself and believes himselfdishonored.

The Reeve's Tale and the Honor of Men

1. All the men of The Reeve's Tale are consumed with the thought ofhonor:

--the miller (Symkyn) has an inflated sense of his own majesty based on hismarriage

--the students (John and Aleyn) are concerned with their probable ridicule forfalling victim to Symkyn's thievery

2. Justman delineates how the circumstances surrounding honor in the taleparody the idea of true honor:

--Symkyn's "noble" wife is the illegitimate daughter of a parson

--John and Aleyn's honor is achieved through the violation of women

3. Justman states that the men in The Reeve's Tale, though incapable of "real"honor, are adopting the ruling values of their culture.

Chaucer's intentions in The Reeve's Tale

1. Because the elements of honor in The Reeve's Tale are added byChaucer to the tale's analogue in the Decameron, Justman believes the tale tobe meant specifically as a tale about honor.

2. Justman speculates that the Reeve as narrator probably didn't intend toundercut his own "surrogates" in honor by parodying true honor, but thatChaucer may have had this intention over the Reeve's head.

3. Justman points out duality, parallel to the duality of the charivari and ofThe Miller's Tale, in his reading of The Reeve's Tale:

--it reflects social norms with its inherent idea that men should keep to theirstation

--it calls into question the honor ethic itself

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