Prologue To The Merchant's Tale Analysis

623 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The character of the merchant inthe prologue to the Canterbury tales

In the Prologue to the Merchant’s tale, the Merchant begins to speak of marriage. He explains how he has a cynical view of marriage. In lines 1219-20, the merchant says of his wife, “For if she and the devil were a pair, / She’d be more than his match, I dare to swear.” The Merchant then begins to tell his tale.
In his tale, an elderly knight named January decides to marry. He believes it to be God’s plan for him to marry a woman and have a son. January calls two of his closest friends, Justinius and Placebo, to offer him advice. Justinius believes that marriage would not be right for January and that women are unfaithful. Arguing against Justinius is Placebo, who believes that January should decide himself. After some time, January chooses …show more content…

One day when Damian was sick, January sends his wife to go check on him. Then Damian gives May a letter that professed his love for her. After reading the letter, May returns a letter to Damian showing her desire for him. At this time January begins to become blind and extremely possessive of his wife. January’s new possessive actions become a burden for both May and Damian, who secretly love each other and are communicating through letters. January’s house has a magnificent garden. Line 2030 describes the garden “Now there’s to me no fairer garden known.” January possesses the only key to this garden. One day, May imprints the key into wax, which allows Damian to make a key and have access to the garden. Then, in June, January enters the garden with May. Damian enters the garden before January and May. He then continues to climb up a pear tree, as instructed by May. The tale then cuts to the Gods, Pluto and Proserpina, who are watching January and May. The two are arguing about the advantages and disadvantages of marriage between January and May. Pluto wants to restore the vision of January to show him that May is not to be trusted. However, Proserpina is against this idea saying that men have done evil and that she will give May an excuse to tell January if Pluto restores his

Show More
Related

  • Phillipa's Fox Hunt by Somerville Ross

    1110 Words  | 3 Pages

    The starting of the story kept me in suspense: the starting sentence, “No one can accuse Philippa and me of having married in haste” (Fox 1). This clearly brought up the theme of love and marriage. The selection of words by the narrator told that the speaker did not regret his marriage. The defensive tone of the narrator made me to think that perhaps people had criticized his marriage.

    Read More

  • The Wanton Cynic in The Merchant's Tale

    2093 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Merchant's Prologue and Tale presents the darkest side of Chaucer's discussion on marriage. Playing off both the satire of the moral philosopher, the Clerk, and the marital stage set by the Wyf of Bathe, the Merchant comes forth with his angry disgust about his own marital fate. Disillusioned and depraved, the Merchant crafts a tale with a main character who parallels his own prevarication and blind reductionism while he simultaneously tries to validate his own wanton life by selling his belief to the other pilgrims. As both pervert reality through pecuniary evaluations on different levels, however, both are exposed to be blind fools, subject to the very forces that they exert on others. As this reversal happens and the Merchant satirizes Januarie blindness, Chaucer reveals the Merchant's blindness, giving him the very significance that he had spent his whole tale trying to deny.

    Read More

  • The Butcher's Tale Analysis

    1026 Words  | 3 Pages

    Throughout The Butcher’s Tale: Murder and Anti-Semitism in a German Town, the murder of Ernst Winter in Konitz is very much a reflection of the overall attitudes of many Europeans during the early 20th century. It was clear that once the anti-Semitic attitudes started to become prominent in society, they spiraled out of control and started to take over entire communities. The Jewish people were blamed for crimes they did not commit, were excluded from society, and suffered from acts of violence and hate speech. Wild stories began to be spread all over town and people started to believe everything they heard, even if there was no substance behind it. This caused lots of problems in Germany, as well as Europe in general, since many people got

    Read More

  • Effective Use of Menace in The Merchant's Tale

    792 Words  | 2 Pages

    The dramatic irony that comes with the image of "warm wex" shows the hidden power of May, that Januarie knew nothing about. He is unaware that she has equal knowledge of the usefulness of warm wax and uses it to copy the key to the garden for Damyan. The deviousness of the wife is menacing as she is almost a champion of the image that has previously been so repulsive to the reader.

    Read More

  • A Comaprison of the Miller's Tale and Merchant's Tale

    779 Words  | 2 Pages

    Alison in the Miller's Tale and May of the Merchant's Tale are similar in several ways. Both are young women who have married men much older than themselves. They both become involved with young, manipulative men. They also conspire to and do cuckold their husbands. This is not what marriage is about and it is demonstrated in both tales. What makes the Miller's Tale bawdy comedy and the Merchant's tale bitter satire is in the characterization. In the Miller's tale we are giving stereotyped characters. The principals are cardboard cut-outs sent into farcical motion. The Merchant's Tale gives us much more background and detail of the character's lives. The reader is more involved and can feel their situations. Here we will focus on the two women of each tale and how they demonstrate this difference.

    Read More

  • The Odyssey Of Madam Knight Analysis

    666 Words  | 2 Pages

    The journals expose two different attitudes because these two authors have different personalities. Knight is intolerant with others. When she is questioned; she makes jokes pretending not to be bother, but she does. Basically, Knight is a bright woman who likes to observe others and for that, she makes use of sarcasm to criticize, especially women’s” bad tongues,” as Julia Stern describes on “To relish and spew disgust as cultural critique in The Journal of Madam Knight” another thing, she certainly dislikes interrogation, mainly because she is from Boston and well educated, so she has a refined background, and has trouble dealing with rural people. She believes that Bostonians are better and for that, she perceives herself, as superior in class

    Read More

  • External and Internal Conflict in Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown

    1546 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the opening lines of the tale there is a compulsion, representing internal conflict, indicated on the part of both the protagonist and his wife Faith:

    Read More

  • How The Canterbury Tales Corrupt Women

    1021 Words  | 3 Pages

    Relationships portrayed by Chaucer’s and Malory's stories show how corrupt women are because they always destroy their relationship due to their self-obsession of getting things they want. Women kept secrets from their husbands because they knew what they were doing was wrong. In the Wife of Bath, the Merchant was oblivious to the fact that

    Read More

  • Forgiveness In The Secret Life Of Bees

    1757 Words  | 4 Pages

    Over the course of several months, August guides, teaches, and helps Lily to accept and forgive herself. August once knew Deborah, and she knows that Lily is her daughter, but she does not confront Lily about the issue. Instead, she waits until Lily puts the puzzle pieces together and discovers for herself the relationship between her mother and August. August knows she is not ready to learn the truth about her mother when she and Lily first meet, so she waits for Lily to come to her. When Lily finally realizes the truth, she comes to August and they have a long discussion about Deborah. During this discussion, Lily learns the truth about her mother; that her mother only married T. Ray because she was pregnant with Lily, then after several years she had enough of living and dealing with T. Ray, so she left. Lily is disgusted by the fact that her mother would've done something like this, she did not want to let go of the romantic image of her mother she had painted in her mind (“‘The Secret Life of Bees’ Themes and Symbols of The Secret Life of Bees). Lily struggles to stomach the fact the her mother truly did leave her and she spends some time feeling hurt and angry, but one day, August shows her a picture of Lily and her mother. As Lily looks at the picture she is comforted and thinks, “May must’ve made it to heaven and explained to my mother about the sign I wanted. The one that would let me know I was loved” (Kidd 276). Seeing

    Read More

  • Janie’s Courageous Voice in Their Eyes Were Watching God

    1409 Words  | 3 Pages

    Janie’s first attempt at love does not turn out quite like she hopes. Her grandmother forces her into marrying Logan Killicks. As the year passes, Janie grows unhappy and miserable. By pure fate, Janie meets Joe Starks and immediately lusts after him. With the knowledge of being wrong and expecting to be ridiculed, she leaves Logan and runs off with Joe to start a new marriage. This is the first time that Janie does what she wants in her search of happiness: “Even if Joe was not waiting for her, the change was bound to do her good…From now on until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything” (32). Janie’s new outlook on life, although somewhat shadowed by blind love, will keep her satisfied momentarily, but soon she will return to the loneliness she is running from.

    Read More

  • Quest For Love

    848 Words  | 2 Pages

    Janie’s revelation under the pear tree foreshadows the journey that is about to begin. Janie’s first significant romantic experience occurred on spring, at the age of sixteen, when she observed bees pollinating a pear tree. She saw the dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to the meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was marriage. She had been summoned to beh...

    Read More

  • Wife Of Bath Comparison Essay

    706 Words  | 2 Pages

    Though Chaucer showed multiple tales of various characters in The Canterbury Tales, the Miller’s and Wife of Bath’s tale surpassed them all on their concept of marriage and love. Both allow the reader to understand where they are coming from and their perception. While one does not seem to believe too much in love, the other does. However, both clearly believe that women control the game of love in their own respective ways.

    Read More

  • Attitudes of Marriage in Chaucers the Canterbury Tales

    1523 Words  | 4 Pages

    Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, demonstrate many different attitudes and perceptions towards marriage. Some of these ideas are very traditional, such as that illustrated in the Franklin’s Tale. On the other hand, other tales present a liberal view, such as the marriages portrayed in the Miller’s and The Wife of Bath’s tales. While several of these tales are rather comical, they do indeed depict the attitudes towards marriage at that time in history. D.W. Robertson, Jr. calls marriage "the solution to the problem of love, the force which directs the will which is in turn the source of moral action" (Robertson, 88). "Marriage in Chaucer’s time meant a union between spirit and flesh and was thus part of the marriage between Christ and the Church" (Bennett, 113). The Canterbury Tales show many abuses of this sacred bond, as will be discussed below.

    Read More

  • Rebecca Analysis

    844 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the novel Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier tells the uncommon, suspenseful love story using a small range of characters with many different personality traits. The reader begins to feel as though they truly know these characters only to discover the unseen truth as their masks fall off. As these personalities develop throughout the novel one can discover that the narrator, Mrs. de Winter, strives to please people and feels very insecure in her identity. She tries to stick up for herself, but her words have no effect on her cruel, manipulative, controlling husband, Mr. de Winter. Mr. de Winter appears as a gentleman in the very early chapters of the book; however, the reader soon discovers that Mr. de Winter seems not to care about other people’s feelings, and that he contains controlling characteristics. Besides being controlling, he also verbally abuses his wife. In simple and plain terms, Mr. de Winter is a jerk. Later in the book, another malevolent and controlling character becomes introduced, Mrs. Danvers. Mr. de Winter’s controlling, abusive ways and Mrs. Danvers malevolent tendencies collide together as the new Mrs. de Winter strives to please them.

    Read More

  • The Wife of Bath: Illustrating Courtly Love

    960 Words  | 2 Pages

    Courtly love is extremely evident throughout “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” and allows the development of each character within the plot. Courtly love was believed to be originated in France during the 12th century and eventually spreading to other countries in Europe, influencing authors, such as Geoffrey Chaucer, throughout. English courts, which handled marriages, practiced the art of courtly love from the 12th century to the 14th century, during which marriages were pre-arranged and had little to do with love. A marriage was not based on love, rather on what each participant brought to his or her spouse and families. As love and romance was not a portion of marriage, it became an acceptable practice to seek another romancer outside of the marriage, as long as the spouse adhered to the strict rules of chastity and fidelity (http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/courtly-love.htm). Furthermore, courtly love was only practiced between a man and woman of some sort of noble status, typically between...

    Read More

More about Prologue To The Merchant's Tale Analysis

Open Document