The Merchant's Tales - Chaucer - Themes Notes A-Level English Literature OCR. Includes context (50% of the entire marks), scholars quotes, analysis etc
Themes include:
- Marriage
- Love and Relationships
- Deception/Betrayal
- Women
- Lust
- Class
- Religion
- Sin
- Greed/Possession
- ...
Themes
Marriage
- The Marriage Debate in The Canterbury Tales
o The Clerk’s Tale previously had told about the obedient Griselda tested by her husband Walter – just
as God tests mankind.
Both Walter and Januarie are wealthy and influential men from Lombardy who choose girls of
lower social status as wives, and neither considers the possibility that they would be refused.
It is the wives who differ as, while May’s initial passivity parallels the obedience of
Griselda, she is inwardly scheming.
George L Kittredge advocates for the interpretation of a “marriage group” of stories in the tale.
Hugh Holman notes similarities between courtly love in the Merchant’s and the Franklin’s
Tales
Both have three main characters – husband-knight temporarily removed, wife, loving
squire wasting away.
Both have a major crisis hinging on the supernatural – intervention of P+P or the magical
labours of the clerk of Orleans
In each the garden is the intended place of rendezvous.
o The Wife of Bath had preached to women about how they should use marriage for financial gain and
dominate their husbands.
- Presentation of the proposal and wedding process
o Elaborate
Features a long wedding feast with detailed descriptions (typical of courtly romance) that
greatly contrasts with Januarie’s desperation for it to be over so he can have sex (more fabliau-
esque).
o Involvement of Religion
Januarie’s bending of religious authority to his own selfish purposes” – Thorne
“Religion itself is bemocked.” – Tatlock
A priest marries J and M – he “bad hire be lyk Sarra and Rebekke”
Part of the marriage ceremony but Rebecca (in cahoots with her son) killed her husband
and Sarah was unable to have children (before divine intervention)
o General theme of women being compared to Biblical figures ironically.
At her marriage feast, May is compared to “Queene Ester” (who also looked
meek while plotting Haman’s death)
He also blesses the bed, condoning what will happen next in the consummation scene.
o Women typically married very young – about 12-14.
Symkyn’s daughter in The Reeve’s Tale is practically an old maid, being unmarried at 20.
- Failure of marriage
o The Merchant’s Tale shows what a bad marriage can be produced out of the expectations of medieval
marriage and the context surrounding it.
Marriage was primarily a transaction organised by males to serve economic and political ends,
with the woman treated as a useful, child-bearing appendage to the land or goods being
exchanged.
Weddings were often arranged and sometimes solemnised when children were in their
cradles.
o Jan and May’s marriage fails because she can not live up to the ideal he has of her.
The merchant says about J’s idea of May as the perfect choice for a wife – “this was his
fantasye”.
The word “fantasye” suggests that J’s views do not represent reality.
In reality, May is “a maiden in the toun” (given that the town was Lombardy, this insinuates
that she is not pure).
“She preyseth nat his pleying worth a bene” – If she has a point of comparison then this
could not be her first time.
o Januarie’s reasons for marrying are individually undermined:
Allows for the “leveful procreacioun of children, to th’onour of God above” – Catholic
teaching of marriage at the time. (But if May really is pregnant then it might not be his).
“kepe him, sik and hool” – care for him in sickness and in health. (She has an affair while he is
blind).
Marriage allows for the avoidance of lust – “they sholde leccherye eschue” (renounce).
(Januarie lusts after May to a blasphemous extent in the garden and May has an affair).
, o Lots of cynicism towards marriage but “The cynicism is the Merchant’s”, not Chaucer’s – G L
Kitteridge
“The satire is aimed at January rather than at May” – G L Kitteridge
Trying to dissuade other men from making the same mistake as the Merchant in marriage.
- Weeping and wailing
o The tale opens with “Weping and wailing” – led to think this story will prove how awful marriage is.
o The merchant has a negative view of marriage.
“We wedded men liven in sorwe.”
o Justinus also describes how “I have wept many a teere” since he got married.
o When Januarie is blinded “He wepeth and he waileth pitously”
- Marriage as a trap
o Merchant: “the snare”
o The Merchant pretends to condemn life as a bachelor – “They live but as a brid or as a beest, In
libertee, and under noon arrest”
They live like birds/beasts – freedom and no restraints.
- Marriage is good/religious:
o The Knight prays for “thilke blisful lyf that is bitwixe an housebonde and his wyf”
o “wedlock is so esy and so clene, that in this world it is a paradis.”
o “A wyf is Goddes yifte verraily”
o Being unmarried is sinful – “He which that hath no wyf, I holde him shent” (Damned).
o J thinks marriage is wonderful to a ridiculous degree – worries about it.
“How sholde I thane, that live in swich plesaunce as alle wedded men doon with hire wyvys,
come to the bliss ether Crist eterne on live is?”
How should I if I live in as much pleasure as all married men do with their wives go to
heaven where Christ lives eternally?
Justinus hears this “folye” and suggests that a wife is closer to “purgatorie” than heaven.
o Medieval attitudes to marriage were influenced by St Paul’s teaching and medieval canon law.
St Paul said it was “better to marry than to burn” in Corinthians, suggesting marriage was a
means of legitimising sex and avoiding Hell.
o St Paul also created the ‘marital or conjugal debt’ – mutual obligation of both husband and wife to
have sex when requested by their spouse.
- Benefits of Marriage
o Januarie wanted a wife for an heir as the catechisms on reasons for marriage taught that the purpose
was for children (the “leveful procreacioun of children”), or to control passions (in line with the
Pauline view that “it is better to marry than to burn with passion”.)
o “whan a man is oold and hoor; thane is a wyf the fruit of his tresor.”
Combining two positive images of life/food and money but treasure doesn’t bear fruit.
o Emphasis on bloodline:
“engendren him an heir”
Allows for the “leveful procreacioun of children, to th’onour of God above” – Catholic
teaching of marriage at the time.
Januarie tells May he would rather have been eaten by hounds than lose his heritage.
o “kepe him, sik and hool” – care for him in sickness and in health.
o Marriage allows for the avoidance of lust – “they sholde leccherye eschue” (renounce).
o “This portrayal of married love is firmly on the side of the female” – Ashton
o Marriage for women – provided financial security at a time when many women did not work and
therefore relied on male family members/spouses etc.
o Coverture – The legal status of a married woman was considered under her husband’s protection and
authority.
o Marriage is a way to rise up in society (yet both texts feature a higher-class character marrying for
lust/love rather than a political or financial alliance).
This is expected from Januarie as a man (still recognised as a poor decision). DoM is punished
by the text.
- Marriage as a financial transaction
o “Both the Merchant and Januarie consider their wives as products purchased for a price and become
bitter when they realise the product is flawed.” – Sam Brunner
o “The males organise a market transaction in which woman is a commodity and marriage the particular
institution which will secure the transaction” – David Aers
, o Marriage and reciprocal love rarely go together in the Middle Ages.
The Wife of Bath had preached to women about how they should use marriage for financial
gain and dominate their husbands.
In The Merchant’s Tale, dowries and financial contracts are shown to surround weddings.
o Chaucer evokes the economic nexus which both moulded medieval marriage and was supported by it:
He “lyved in greet prosperitee” and determined to use his “tresor” to get a young and fair wife
“on” whom he might beget an heir, ensuring his property stayed in his own family.
o Even Justinus shares many assumptions with Januarie - the counsel he offers is obsessed with material
possession and his whole approach to marriage relies on the acceptance that it is a business
transaction.
- Experience of women in marriage as negative
o “Life for women of the gentry was synonymous with marriage” – Ann Haskell
o “She is simply another piece of livestock, bought to fulfil a special sexual and procreative purpose and
expected to behave as instructed” – Sam Brunner
o Medieval attitudes to marriage were influenced by St Paul’s teaching and medieval canon law.
“Wives submit to your husbands [...] Husbands love your wives” (Colossians 3:18-19) –
created an unequal relationship between spouses.
Love and Relationships
- Sexual control and confinement
o Januarie controls May’s every move – keeping the key to the garden that metaphorically represents
access to her body and his hand on her at all times.
- May and Damyan’s affair
o “O perilous fyr, that in the bedstraw bredeth”
o “O servant traitour, false hoomly hewe” (and servant = hewe – deliberate repetition)
o Januarie trusts Damyan implicitly – “He is a gentil squier”
o May receives and reads Damyan’s love letter “And in the privee softely it caste.”
Bathos – undercuts romantic ideals and sets tone for their relationship.
Shows how little privacy women had – she is only free in the toilet.
- Secrets in relationships
o Characters keep secrets and resort to deception to pursue and protect relationships that they wouldn’t
be able to have normally because of their class.
May and Damyan begin a secret affair where every element of their relationship from first
conversation is wrought with secrets.
Marriages – were largely transactional and for pragmatic convenience rather than
romantic ideals.
When May visits Damyan he presses a letter into her hand that she can’t read in front of
the witnesses – it is highly probable she had some idea of what that letter could contain.
May receives and reads Damyan’s love letter, “And in the privee softely it caste.”
“Misogynistic and bitter [...] a story intending to show the deceitfulness of women” –
Stevens
o In both texts secret relationships are important to preserve the reputation of those in them
However, the Duchess’s reputation is harmed by a secret relationship as it means that her
pregnancy and children appear illegitimate when discovered whereas this preserves the
“fantasye” Januarie has of May as a loyal wife
May could face immense social consequences if her affair was discovered
Importance of reputation – Katherine Swynford (John of Gaunt’s mistress and Chaucer’s
sister-in-law) was reviled and scorned (while John of Gaunt’s wife Blanche of Lancaster
was adored) – shows how status and reputation were intertwined.
o Significantly, where the secret relationship between May and Damyan is an affair, the Duchess and
Antonio are arguably legitimately married.
May and Damyan are committing adultery, something that audiences would see as more sinful
than the technically legal (even if disliked by the Church) method of marriage that the Duchess
and Antonio pursue
Huston Diehl points out that not only is Cariola the witness to their marriage but the
audience is too
The tradition of Courtly Love is steeped in dishonesty and trickery:
o The courtly love relationship must always be an adulterous one
o The courtly lovers will communicate by secret letters and signs
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