Character Clues

Character Analysis

Direct Characterization

The narrator of the "Clerk's Tale" gives us lengthy portraits of both Walter and Grisilde. We learn that Walter is fair, strong, young, and full of honor and courtesy. We also learn that he holds power securely, though he thinks too much about his present pleasures and not enough about the future.

Grisilde's portrait is even longer than Walter's. The narrator calls her fair and virtuous and says that she encloses in her breast "rype and sad corage" (220). We also see some direct characterization of the Sergeant, who apparently has a suspicious reputation and a "suspect" face and word. We have no cause to doubt the direct characterizations in the "Clerk's Tale," since the characters' actions confirm the things the narrator tells us about them.

Actions

The actions of the characters in the "Clerk's Tale" work harmoniously with direct characterizations to confirm the most important parts of the portraits the narrator paints of them.

For example, the narrator tells us that Walter doesn't think enough about the future. Immediately after that, we see Walter admit that he never thinks about marriage. Then he up and marries a poor women who is unlikely to cement his claims to power in the future. In fact, Walter's thoughts are all "in his lust present" to an excessive degree, so much so that he cannot shake the desire to test his wife's constancy despite all the evidence that she is a faithful wife.

Similarly, the narrator tells us flat out that Grisilde is extremely virtuous. We see this in action right away, when Grisilde endures hard work and poverty and shows such a tender and obedient attitude toward her father. She supposedly possesses a "rype and sad corage," or a strong and sober character; she proves this to be the case when she withstands Walter's torments without protest.