Recasting the Canterbury Tales - Stage 1.

Recasting any work of literature as important as The Canterbury Tales is risky. You run the risk of changing the author’s original intention and message. But, that’s what parodies and satires do in general. In recasting The Canterbury Tales I would update the character of the Clerk. The Clerk is described as a quiet, wise man. He is a student at Oxford and currently lacking in a job. His education has taken most of his money, leaving him impoverished. He is educated, but has spent so much time in school that his chances of finding a job are slim. He tells a tale of a humble, gentle woman named Griselde who marries a rich, powerful Marquis in northern Italy. He cruelly tests her love and devotion to him by taking her children away from her and telling her they must be killed because of her birth into a low social status, all the while actually sending them to live with his sister. His final test to her is a counterfeit papal order that he may divorce Griselde and marry a woman of higher social status. She accepts this news quietly and humbly, not arguing his decision. The Marquis’ test is complete when he writes to Griselde and asks her to help him plan his wedding to his new wife, which she patiently and readily agrees to. She asks that he not treat or trick his new young wife, but says this in a kind tone. The Marquis responds by telling her that she has always been his wife and the new young bride is actually her daughter. Griselde gathers the children in her arms tightly and is brought to live at the palace. She is given fine clothes and endures a happy peaceful marriage for the rest of her life.
The Clerk’s moral to this story does not have anything to do with Griselde’s humility. He does not believe there there is a woman able to follow in Griselde’s example – a woman that humble is impossible to find. Rather he encourages people to remain constant in adversity and accept whatever God sends their way. The tale ends with a warning note to husbands –do not attempt to test your wife’s patience and humility. The husband will lose every single time. Women are advised not to hold their tongues through all adversity, but to take governance for themselves.
In recasting this tale, I would choose to update the Clerk from a medieval student at Oxford to a modern-day student here at Georgia Tech. I have heard many a student remark that “Georgia Tech sucks the money and life right out of you.” Most students here are quiet and must be wise in order to get through Georgia Tech without failing (too much…). So many students are involved in their education here that we do have job prospects coming out, but most choose to stay in school. These various reasons include grad school, research, and a general feeling of loss without having a legitimate reason to complain all the time due to the insane amounts of work and tests expected of every student. If that student were to retell the tale of Griselde and the Marquis, they would tell it much the same way, but change the moral. They would encourage women to be humble and submit to them. Although, if this student were the average Georgia Tech student, they wouldn’t necessarily have an idea of how a woman would react to that to begin with…