'It is clear...that Chaucer used the couple relationship as a kind of open field on which a number of battles might be fought

... 'It is clear...that Chaucer used the couple relationship as a kind of open field on which a number of battles might be fought: experience versus authority, rebellion versus submission, impetuosity versus prudence, determinism versus free will, passivity versus moral action, as well as conflicts centring on money, possessive jealousy or utopianism'. (Sheila Delany). Discuss this statement in relation to TWO OR MORE of the following texts. ('The Miller's Tale' and 'The Wife of Bath') The narrative and structure of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales reflects the couple relationship clearly. By centring on themes central to life both then and now, the coupling of issues, often diametrically opposed, makes the tales seem perpetually relevant. Overall, the unfinished sequence takes the reader on a journey which is itself a 'pilgrimage' where encounters are made and difficulties addressed upon a broad canvass which encapsulates the primary directives of the human condition. By his use of coupling,

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