The Man of Law’s Tale describes the Sultan of Syria as being overwhelmed with desire to have Lady Custance, daughter of the Roman Emperor, as his wife. Lady Custance recognizes her need to be obedient to the arrangement of marriage, because of her high moral value and importance says, “Women are born to servitude and suffering, and to be under man’s governance.” (Chaucer, p 175) Here, there is a clear recognition of relational identity in which the woman is behaving in a manner that is pleasing to the man (i.e. her father and the Sultan) as it is the will of God. Every man’s opinion of Lady Custance refers to her beauty, goodness, deeds, and character. Still, she expresses some reluctance to the marriage given her lack of understanding of the Sultan’s true character and devotion – something she is known to hold in high regard.
The Sultan of Syria is instead so filled with desire and certainty that he must have the Lady by his side by any means. He cannot extend his life and nor be with her for long, but demands her solely based on the merchants’ accounts of her. As Medieval Philosophy Chapter 14 warns, “Those who take a superficial and unreflecting view of things observe the outward appearance of anything they meet…” (Foltz, p 136) The Sultan has not even seen the Lady at the point of his decision and still enforces his lust for her. The divine symbolism of marriage is most holy when the two who are to wed are united under the faith of God, but the difference of religions poses a threat to such arrangement. Lady Custance, having a more perceptive soul, lacks trust in the Sultan. She does not know however, that he too lacks true devotion to Christianity and is executing his appointment to Lady Custance with great preparation and steadfastness.
However, it takes more than the Sultan empowering those around himself to simply fake faith and purity as it was promised to the Emperor. Writings From The Philokalia, From St. John of Karapathos notes that, “Much labour and effort is needed in prayer in order to attain to an untroubled state of thought…‘Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christs is in you, except ye be reprobates?’” (Hughes, p 30) Reprobates is an unprincipled version of the knowledge of Christ, which the Sultan exhibits in his exercises to secure Lady Custance as his wife. Without principle, the Sultan is not of the same moral standing he has come to know Lady Custance by, thereby soiling the foundation of what could be their marriage. The Sultan does not know Christ, but simply his own desire to convince the Lady of his value by denouncing the teachings of Mohammed. However, he will use his wife-to-be’s religion as a means of changing himself to save his own life and get what he wishes. Instead, his poor decisions will later destroy the good fortune spoken of in the prologue, which further will cause him great turmoil.
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