The Merchant's Tale

Non- Traditional Women in Medieval Marriages In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales there are sections that are purely based on marriage, and in these stories a couple of the women are portrayed as being non- traditional wives in their marriages. A marriage in medieval England is not like what marriage is today. The wives in both ‘The Wife of Bath’s Tale’ and ‘The Merchant’s Tale’ are what today’s society would expect from a woman or wife. A non- traditional wife is someone who wants authority, is outspoken

All three texts present very different views on marriage. ‘On Chesil Beach’ presents a picture of a nervous young couple on the first night of their honeymoon, where although both are inexperienced, they seem to be in love. Whereas, in ‘The Merchants Tale’, we have an old ‘hoor’ man, desperate for a young wife to present him with an heir. On the other hand, ‘Romeo and Juliet’ is a play about the marriage of two lovers; this view is idealised and has for centuries been perceived as the perfect view of

In a significant number of his tales Chaucer uses the comic genre of fabliaux, which are short, typically anti-intellectual, indecent tales of bourgeois or low life. The plot usually involves an older husband who is cuckholded by a younger man whom (often) the older man has himself brought into the house, and his often younger wife. The Miller, the Reve, the Merchant and the Wife of Bath all tell tales which are essentially amoral - in fitting with the genre; tales which would not have been acceptable

In Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, he portrays woman as having an evil and looked down upon quality that they use to tempt and harm men, especially in “The Merchant’s Tale”, “The Clerk’s Tale”, and “The Wife of Bath”. In Chaucer’s “The Merchant’s Tale”, women are viewed as lacking in being honest and need people to do things for her. For example, January, whom is a wealthy knight, decides

consensual and contractual relationship recognized by law” (Marrium-Webster). Per the tales of Chaucer, marriage is so much more than that. By pulling back the layers of some of his tales, I found that Chaucer had several different views on marriage, what makes it work, and what doesn’t. I examined the following tales: “The Wife of Bath”, “The Clerk’s Tale”, “The Merchant’s Tale”, “The Miller’s Tale”, and “The Franklin’s Tale”. I found that according to Chaucer, the qualities that can make or break a marriage

characters seen in the tale have a symbolic meaning. January and May are both months, and act like the month they represent. Placebo’s name in Latin means ‘I will please’ and Justinius means ‘the just one’. Two types of ‘blindness’ seen in the tale are actual blindness, and being blind to what you do not want to see. Perhaps, January saw what was going on with his wife and Damian, but became ‘blind’ in the fact that he knew he was being cheated on, but did not want to accept it. This tale is similar to the

The Canterbury Tales: Wealth, Morality and Success In the prologue of The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer, through his choice of style devices such as imagery and details for the merchant and the five guildsmen, highlights materialism in the medieval middle class and challenges the oft perceived notion that material wealth is an automatic determinant of personal success or morality. Chaucer uses imagery and detail to paint a picture of a stereotypical merchant, later to reveal truths contradictory

anxiously waits to meet with a merchant’s daughter he met the year prior, but when he decided to go after his treasure he leaves her behind. When he and the caravan reach the Oasis, he sees a beautiful girl named Fatima and according to The Alchemist, “It was love. Something older than humanity, more ancient than the desert. Something that exerted the same force whenever two pairs of eyes met, as had theirs here at the well.” Immediately Santiago forgot about the merchant’s daughter he was so eager to

Canterbury Tales, many travelers gather together to begin a pilgrimage. During their quest, each of the pilgrims proceed to tell a tale to entertain the group. From these stories arise four different tales, in which Chaucer uses to examine the concept of marriage and the problems that arise from this bonding of two people. In the tales of "The Franklin", "The Clerk", "The Wife of Bath", and "The Merchant", marriage is debated and examined from different perspectives. Out of the four tales, The Franklin's

The Shipman’s Tale exhibited a positive viewpoint through the Marxist lens, but it is not the only instance of a positive viewpoint in The Canterbury Tales. In addition to The Shipman’s Tale, The Reeve’s Tale, of The Canterbury Tales, through the Marxist lens displays a positive perspective when the miller is defeated by the students. The favorite in this scenario is the