The Franklin's Tale and the Medieval Trivium: A Call for Critical Thinking

by KURTIS B. HAAS, Mesa State College


Quite justly, Arveragus, Dorigen, and Aurelius have received little respect among critics for their keen intellectual powers. Even a sympathetic reading of the characters often elicits a response such as that of R. D. Eaton, who makes note of the "central characters' limited moral vision, courage and understanding." At various points in the tale, these characters have the opportunity to perform analyses of others' use of language, to consider means by which they could use language to further their own ends, and to use linguistic means to construct newer, more favorable realities for themselves—all hallmarks of medieval ideas concerning the proper uses of words. this essay argues that in the fictive universe of the Franklin's tale, Dorigen and Arveragus demonstrate a dangerous deficiency in the cognitive skills inculcated by the medieval trivium—dialectic, rhetoric, and grammar. This deficiency, in turn, leaves them vulnerable to the Orleans clerk's corruptions of the quadrivium. the Franklin's tale then uses their incompetence with the trivium to create a link between their inability to perform what we would call critical thinking and their ability to behave ethically. In this way, the tale critiques a world where the most elementary reasoning skills have been lost to pseudoscience and thickheaded versions of chivalric honor, suggesting the need for a more thorough understanding of the interrogative power of language as a remedy.