The Man of Law's Tale depicts a world in which females and males are both victims and villians of love. After reading the tale, it occurred to me that the Man of Law's allusion to the Legend of Good Women in the Prologue of the wordes of the Hoost to the compaignye served the purpose of creating irony (the Legend of Good Women emphasizes the tragic innocence of its female characters while the Man of Law's actual tale features many acts of villiany), whose function was to oppose and expose the bigotry of the narrator in the Legend of Good Women. Indeed, the Man of Law's summary of the Legend of Good Women (cf. 60 - 76) is less slanted toward female innocence and helplessness than the actual work is, and displays a more nuanced portrayal of the actual female and male protagonists the Legend references, acknowledging several of the female characters' acts of villiany - precisely what the Legend of Good Women neglects (cf. 69, 72-73) - while not emphasizing male infidelity as much as the actual work does. The Man of Law's reading of the Legend of Good Women and his perception of gender roles is immediately established as different from the Chaucer who wrote the Legend of Good Women, setting us up for a tale in which female and male treachery and suffering occurs.

Paradoxically, some narratorial interjections are at odds with this initial setup and the pattern of events in the tale itself. From line 365-372 the narrator derides and castigates women for the grievances which befall mankind in sin and marriage. To me, this assertion is incongruous to the tale as apart from mother of the Sowdan and Donegild, the knight - a male - also destroys Custaunce's marriage and exacerbates her sorrow. At this stage, I am unable to reconcile this conflict.