"The Franklin's Tale," from Canterbury Tales, by William Faulkner, is perhaps the most moral of all the tales. It was enjoyable to read, and was almost like a fairy tale. The Franklin himself, as described in the prologue is a very noble, open, and honorable man. In this, he is the perfect man to tell such a tale. The Franklin is a perfect gentleman, so all of his characters are kind, and noble. The tale begins with the courtship of Breton knight Arviragus and Dorigen, who come to be married happily. Soon after they marry Arviragus is sent to England to work for two years. Dorigen does not handle the absence of her husband well, and is very depressed and emotional. Dorigen becomes distressed by some rocks along the shoreline of the ocean near the port, and is scared that when her husband comes back home his ship will crash on the rocks and sink. She attends a garden party where she meets a squire named Aurelius. Aurelius eventually tells Dorigen that he is deeply in love with her. Dorigen agrees half-playfully and half-angrily that she will be his lover if he removes the rocks near the port. Dorigen believes that this is impossible, but Aurelius travels to Orleans to meet with a student that is skilled in the sciences of illusion. Aurelius agrees to pay him one thousand pounds to make the rocks disappear for a week. When Dorigen learns that Aurelius can indeed remove the rocks she becomes very sad, as she does not want to betray her husband. Arviragus returns home and Dorigen tells him of her promise to Aurelius. Her husband tells her that she must fulfill her promise. When Dorigen goes to Aurelius he decides to let her promise go unfulfilled, after learning how nobly Arviragus had acted. He says that a squire can be just as honorable as a night. When the law student goes to Aurelius he tells him that he does not need to pay his debt. The question that remains is, who of the four behaved the most nobly?.
