The Merchant S Tale

The critical acclaim for The Canterbury Tales as a whole is matched by the puzzlement over the work’s conclusion, the “Parson’s Tale” and Chaucer’s retraction. By modern standards, it hardly seems the “merry tale” the Parson promises his audience, and after the liveliness of much of the rest of the Tales, it appears to close the work not with a bang, but a whimper.

He also learns that his mother has married his uncle and is disillusioned by it. He feels this marriage as incestuous and indecent. He is so depressed seeing his mother’s marriage that his contempt towards the entire womankind becomes clear when he says-

The Merchant uses his feelings on the marriage to teach the lesson in the tale. He despises being married and his intolerable wife causes him constant agony, and because of this he has a bitter and cynical view of marriage. Merchant states, “I have a wife, the worst that there could be; For a friend were coupled to

In her prologue the wife of Bath talks about her five husbands and the different relations she had with them, as she recalls her fifth husband she tells her audience how he use to give more attention to his book than to her. So she decided to rip pages of her husband’s book, this makes her husband furious who hits his wife violently for this act. Yet as she lay on the ground wife puts up an act to make herself seem miserable to her husband’s eyes. This act makes her husband feel empathy for her and feel remorse for his action and he tries to redeem himself to her by letting her do what she wishes of him. The wife describes the scene

The Canterbury Tales, an anthology or collection of short stories was written by Geoffrey Chaucer, as he participated in the pilgrimage to Canterbury with 29 other pilgrims by his side. During their travels, each of them are responsible for telling four tales; and the pilgrim which tells the best tale will receive dinner by the group. As four stories are to be told by each of the pilgrims, each tale differs significantly as well as the themes of each. “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” and “The Knight’s Tale” do share common characteristics, by building off of the ideas of the Knight’s Code of Chivalry. Whether humorous or representing the gravity of a person’s decision, Knight’s Code of Chivalry and Art of Courtly Love can be discovered in the two

The Wife of Bath claims that she loved her fifth husband, Jankin, the most. Her love for Jankin was based on 1) his ability to pleasure her sexually, and 2) His abusive and neglectful behavior that made her want him more. The Wife of Bath’s tale radiates independence and dominance, but in the end, the Wife of Bath’s love for her fifth husband is based on his ability to make her submissive. By declaring Jankin her favorite husband, the Wife negates her whole argument about the necessity of superiority in a relationship to make it a happy

The Canterbury Tales” is a collection of twenty four original stories written by the one and only Geoffrey Chaucer published in seventeen forty eight. Mr. Chaucer’s frame story consists of thirty people who travel as pilgrims to England, also known as the wonderful Canterbury. As you can imagine, the journey to Canterbury is lengthy. The characters decide to kill time by unfolding tales stringing from different layers of society. Within every story holds its’ own wistful meaning. There are lessons embedded in every two stories to and from Canterbury. Especially “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” and “The Pardoner’s Tale”. Told by an evil preacher and a very lustful, beyond used up wife. Now usually preachers have a great reputation. Thought to be all

Wealth and property feature heavily in the wife’s portrayal of marriage and along with the issue of her independence is responsible for many of her marital conflicts. The first three husbands "riche and olde" were married each for "hir land and hir tresoor" then discarded as the Wife looks for other prospects. When one of these husbands tries to restrict the Wife’s spending she refuses to let him be both "maister of my body and of my good" so refuses sexual favours in return for her freedom as she will not become a mere possession. She generalizes that women "love no man that taketh or keepth charge" suggesting an element of independence and individualism in 14th century marriage. The wife resents being controlled; she

The Wife of Bath is not an admirable person. She is controlling and very mischievous. She used all her husbands for money and she made all the decisions in the relationship. She manipulated her husbands by making them jealous and blaming them for things they didn’t do.

Women in the medieval times were commonly known as having no power and always looking to men to be the leader in not only the economy, but also in the marriage. The Wife of Bath’s tale and prologue contradict this view in a way like no other. The Wife lived a life completely opposite of what was normal during the medieval time period. She even made the Pardoner doubt whether he should get married, because he feared his wife would control him like the wife of bath’s did her husbands. The Wife of Bath’s prologue included her

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, a set of pilgrims have a story-telling competition while travelling to Canterbury to visit the the shrine of Saint Thomas-a-Becket. The Merchant and the Franklin both participate in this competition. The Merchant’s Tale is a response to a previous tale (The Clerk’s) and inspired by a personal experience. The Franklin’s Tale is a retelling of an older tale. The Merchant is the last person to tell a vulgar tale, dealing with a theme such as lust. The Franklin, who tells his tale after the Merchant, tells a tale that lives up to the chivalric code . Prior to The Merchant’s Tale, the Clerk tells a tale about a wife that is put through a series of tests by her husband. Even with the unnecessary and extremely difficult trials, the wife remains faithful and loyal to her husband. In his prologue, the Merchant says he can relate to the sadness that marriage can bring although he has only been married for two months. The Merchant says that marriage “is a trap” and is asked to further explain his theory. The Merchant’s Tale is about a knight named January, who had lived for sixty years without a wife. He gets married and his squire goes behind his back to have an affair with his new wife. As the tale ends, the Host prays aloud that God will keep him from such a deceitful wife. But he stops himself from telling more stories about his own wife, fearing that one of the pilgrims will tell on him. The Franklin’s Tale is about a knight named Arveragus desires a wife. He marries a young maiden named Dorigen. While her husband is away on a crusade, Dorigen is stressing in his absence. Then Arveragus returns and finds Dorigen extremely distraught. Dorigen then explains everything to him and he says she must keep her promise, even though it hurts him. Dorigen presents herself to Aurelius. However, when Aurelius learns of Arveragus' actions and how he lives up the chivalric code, he cuts off the deal and sends Dorigen back to him. The two tales have similar character structures, a female and two males. The two tales deal with the topic of medieval love, faithfulness and commitment in marriage. It can be argued that Chaucer doesn’t

Geoffrey Chaucer, the author of The Canterbury Tales, writes these stories to express a variety of themes and lessons. One of these themes is the fidelity or loyalty in marriages during the late thirteen hundreds. Chaucer uses a collection of pilgrims and their tales to portray the main types of marriage during this time. These views are narrowed down to three main types and they are the feminine view, the courtly view, and the common or fabliaux view. These main types are seen in The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale, The Franklin’s Tale, and The Miller’s Tale.

However, he had decided one day that he wanted to marry, mainly to please God’s wish that every man and woman should marry. He also wanted to make sure that all of his estates and money should go to his blood (preferably sons), rather than some strangers. The merchant goes on, explaining what virtues he wanted his wife to have. He also expresses his pity towards the men who are not married to a woman. The merchant, whose name is revealed to be January, stresses the importance of marrying quickly, and that she must be younger than 20 years and “pure”. January then asks his two brother’s, Placebo and Justinus, thoughts about marriage. Placebo is very agreeing to January’s proposal. Justinus, however, is married and says that he is miserable and is very against January marrying. January ignores Placebo’s warning against marriage, and begins to search for his new wife. He finds a suitable woman, named May, and he arranges for them to marry as quickly as possible. The gods above were enthralled by January and

The Merchant responds to his unhappy marriage by describing how marriage is a trap. Even though he has only been married for two months he claims that if his wife was to marry the devil, “[s]he would him overmatch, I dare well swear” (Chaucer 371). His quick confession about his unhappy marriage contrasts greatly to the reserve the Merchant had when speaking of his financial difficulties (Delahoyde). Because of his unhappy marriage, the Merchant intends to tell a story that illustrates how a husband is affected by a wife’s cursedness but claims that the story has no connections to his own life.

Geoffrey Chaucer’s the Merchant’s Tale tells the tale of a husband, a wife, and sexual deceit. A narrative nearly identical to that in Chaucer’s work can be found in the Bible. In the Tale, the Merchant depicts the sexual interactions of men and women, whether between husband and wife (i.e. Januarie and May) or adulterers (i.e. May and Damyan). Similarly, Genesis 2 and 3 of the Bible focus on sexual interactions between husband and wife (i.e.. Adam and Eve) and adulterers (i.e. Eve and the Serpent/tree of knowledge). These similarities are identified through the plot itself; the characters’ names and actions; and various key words along with their respective connotations and etymological backgrounds. These similarities are present