The document includes key quotes from the entire tale, selected to help you answer a wide range of questions. They are separated into the following themes: women, marriage, sex, power, relationships, class, religion and deception. They are succinct and chosen selectively.
The Merchant's Tale AO3 (Context) and AO5 (Critics)
The Merchant's Tale - Critics (AO5)
The Merchant's Tale - Historical Context
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English Literature
Drama and poetry pre-1900 (H472)
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Key Merchant’s Tale Quotes
Women
‘So true and full of wisdom’ – merchant says is a husband’s view of his wife
‘She shall not pass twenty years old’ – January puts conditions on love + outlines him to be
the senex amans stereotype
January tells his friends that older women know too much -> wants a younger wife whom he
may shame to his will and who will bear him children
‘Fair figure’ and ‘fair face’ – January describes May when he looks through the market-place
trying to find someone to marry vs him saying ‘love is blind’ – there is an earnest tone but
underneath = lusty desire
‘Ravished in a trance’ – January’s reaction when he looks at May
‘In his imagination he began to menace or threaten her’ – shows the potential for violence in
men towards women + wants to hurry the process of the wedding ceremony -> have sex,
showing his lustful desires + references to sexual desire: ‘sexual desire’ + ‘eager’ + ‘harder’ +
‘strain’ -> aggressive verbs
‘Fainted and swooned’ – Damyan reacted as much as January did when he saw May ->
almost suggests May carries a sense of divinity
‘Fresh’, ‘his paradise’ – January’s description of May
‘creature’ – January claims May is the creature that he best loves
The host is shocked by the tale and says women will ‘always deviate from the truth’
Marriage
‘Wedlock is so easy + clean’ with all other states being ‘not worth a bean’ – says the
merchant
A wife is said to be God’s gift to man -> merchant justifies desire to marry (‘God hath sent
him a wife’)
‘Pay their debt’– idea in marriage a woman owes her husband his sexual satisfaction (sounds
more like a business proposition)
‘Mirror polished bright’ – idea of reflection: he wants a female version of himself +
suggestion that
Description of the wedding feast and music accompanying it is very elaborate + detailed,
especially when compared to the rushed description of the wedding.
‘A man may do no sin with his wife’ – comment on entrapment of marriage + contextual idea
that rape was allowed if it was in marriage
When January became blind, he made sure to always hold May tight to him but this caused
her to often cry -> shows marriage/relations are not always equal/looking out for care of the
other
‘and al myn heritage, toun and tour’ – things January says May will win if she is faithful to
him -> idea that one must ‘test’ love
Just before May and Damyan have sex, May refers to her marriage vows -> irony + lack of
binding nature of marriage
The merchant claims his wife ‘hath an heep of vices’ and ‘my reweth soore I am unto hire
teyd’ (she bitterly repents being tied to her)
Sex
January drinks mulled wine, claret, and strong white wine -> as aphrodisiacs
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