A Clash of Two Communities: "The Man of Law's Tale"

    I find that each story in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales can be recognized for a specific theme or message that the work is trying to portray. What really caught my eye was “The Man of Law’s Tale” and its representation of a collision of two very seperate worlds. It demonstrates what occurs when people from very different communities get entangled, and when faced with religious conversion.

    This work is about a super virtuous Catholic woman named Custance. She is married off into a community of pagans, and undergoes just about every hardship possible at the hands of two very sinister mothers-in-law. Despite every adversity that she endures, she is basically saved by her faith, which remains stronger than ever: “Chaucer authenticates a miracle by asking why Custance was not slain with other Cristians at the massacre plotted by the Sultan’s mother (470-71). God saved Custance” (Johnson 5) In the process, she is able to convert an entire community of people without even trying.

    The way in which religious conversion is depicted in the tale is quite interesting. Chaucer paints Christianity as a religion so powerful that when one meets a believer who performs a miracle, others will willingly make the choice to convert. Unlike the original story that the work is based off of, Lewis states that “Chaucer omits Custance’s role as actively preaching to the merchants and causing them to be baptized, a move that would seem to result in a passive rather than an active missionary bride” (14). He focuses the reader’s attention on Custance as the bearer of faith. Interestingly enough, while doing this, Chaucer also portrays her as a paragon of faith and purity. She represents the perfect image of the Catholic Church.

     Custance does not only serve as a religious pawn in the story, but a tool for the goal of Islam’s obliteration. Right from the beginning, the marriage of her to the Sultan suggests the beginning of the end of this religion. The Sultan, without blinking an eye, chooses to covert to be with her. It is his mother who gets in between the couple, killing all of the Christians after their wedding ceremony. This juxtaposition between characters is highly important. While Chaucer depicts Custance as peaceful and strong in her beliefs, Islamic figures throughout the story are portrayed as either easily persuaded or volatile.

    Despite this misrepresentation of Islam that the author depicts, he also seems to hint that the two religions are more alike than different. This is something that both communities in real life may ignore, viewing each other as the enemy. Khan writes that “what is ignored is that the Christians’ belief in the fundamentals and traditions of Christianity is much more similar to the Muslims thinking on their own beliefs” (12). They really are not much different after all, but many refuse to look at the commonalities.

    
In the original story by Trivet, two main priorities of the Crusades are depicted. These are territorial expansion and the possession of Jerusalem. Interestingly enough, in Chaucer’s version of the tale the main goal is spiritual conversion of the Syrians by the Romans. Islam and Christianity clash in this story, showing its readers the huge impact that this has on both communities. Custance becomes the posterchild for her religion and all things good, while various Muslim characters are written in a completely different manner.