‘The Merchant’s Tale’ Critical Interpretations
Individual Critics
• J S P. Tatlock (1936):
o ‘For unrelieved acidity… the tale is one of the must surprising pieces of unlovely
virtuosity’
o ‘Religion itself is bemocked’
• Edward Wagenknecht (1959):
o ‘Like Januarie, the Merchant never truly knows what marriage is because he is blinded by
his anger… the Merchant speaks in a frenzy of contempt and hatred’
o ‘The hatred for women; the contempt is for himself and all other fools who will not take
warning by example’
o ‘Januarie’s blindness is a physical counterpart of the ignorance of marriage and of women
he has shown all along’
• Karl Wentersdorf (1965) – ‘the tale is a demonstration of the reprehensible lechery and
folly of men’
• Emerson Brown Jr (1968) – ‘the garden is a representation of May’s body’
• David Aers (1980):
o ‘The males organise a market transaction in which woman is a commodity and marriage
the particular institution which will secure the transaction’
o ‘The text justifies that most marriages in the middle and upper social groups were
transactions in which human beings, their labour-power, and their sexual-power were sold’
• Gail Ashton (1998) – ‘without doubt this portrayal of married love is firmly on the side of
the female’
• Stephanie Tolliver (2001):
o ‘Januarie shops for his bride’
o ‘The Merchant’s misogyny is a product of his marital disillusionment’
o ‘May is made of masculine fantasy’
o ‘Januarie’s inability to analyse May’s deceit is essentially his refusal to accept it’
o ‘The Merchant bought more than he bargained for when he entered into the marriage’
o ‘The mirror Januarie sets up in the marketplace can only reflect the physical appearance of
women who pass it, not their intelligence, opinions of personality’
o ‘Januarie will never be able to see May’s adultery because he has never been able to
perceive her as anything other than his possession’
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, • C David. Benson (2004):
o ‘The Merchant’s complaints are a conventional piece of medieval antifeminism’
o ‘Januarie is one of Chaucer’s greatest achievements in moral characterisation, but the
pilgrim Merchant is little more than a stock figure. The tale warns us to trust the tale, not
the teller’
o ‘The tale introduces a new standard of judgement (from the bible and classics) to the
world of fabliau that exposes the corruption of January and May’
• Derek Pearsall (2004):
o ‘There are many subtle anticipations and echoings: Januarie’s comparison of his sexuality
to evergreen laurel is echoed in the laurel in the garden where he is cuckolded; the wax to
which he compares the pliability of the desired wife is echoed in the wax his wife uses to
make a copy of the key to the garden’
o ‘January himself is something more than the traditional senex amans. To the disgust
traditionally associated with that figure, Chaucer adds a lurid physical reality’
o ‘The images of sexual possession as eating, the fantasies of prolonged rape, the haste, the
barrelful’s of aphrodisiacs give a partly comic effect, but always with un undertone of
disgust and repulsion’
• Holly Crocker – ‘May’s conduct demonstrates that the feminine passivity upon which
masculine performances of agency depend is of course an act’
• Elaine Hansen:
o ‘May is devised out of Januarie’s thoughts, just as Eve is out of Adam’s’
o ‘Early critics review May as a completely unfeeling wife because many were unable to
accept her vanquishing over the senex amans’
• Priscilla Martin:
o ‘The male exploitation of economic power for erotic purpose’
o ‘January believes he is inhabiting a romance which in finally bitterly exposed as a
fabliaux’
• John Thorne:
o ‘The tale draws attention to the fate of a sacred authoritative text in the hands of a naïve
enthusiast’
o ‘Januarie’s being of religious authority to his own selfish purposes leaves religion
untouched but adds to our sense of his delusion and error’
• Katy Lee – ‘women are repeatedly compared to food and drink in the Tales, particularly by
the unhappily married Merchant’
32
Individual Critics
• J S P. Tatlock (1936):
o ‘For unrelieved acidity… the tale is one of the must surprising pieces of unlovely
virtuosity’
o ‘Religion itself is bemocked’
• Edward Wagenknecht (1959):
o ‘Like Januarie, the Merchant never truly knows what marriage is because he is blinded by
his anger… the Merchant speaks in a frenzy of contempt and hatred’
o ‘The hatred for women; the contempt is for himself and all other fools who will not take
warning by example’
o ‘Januarie’s blindness is a physical counterpart of the ignorance of marriage and of women
he has shown all along’
• Karl Wentersdorf (1965) – ‘the tale is a demonstration of the reprehensible lechery and
folly of men’
• Emerson Brown Jr (1968) – ‘the garden is a representation of May’s body’
• David Aers (1980):
o ‘The males organise a market transaction in which woman is a commodity and marriage
the particular institution which will secure the transaction’
o ‘The text justifies that most marriages in the middle and upper social groups were
transactions in which human beings, their labour-power, and their sexual-power were sold’
• Gail Ashton (1998) – ‘without doubt this portrayal of married love is firmly on the side of
the female’
• Stephanie Tolliver (2001):
o ‘Januarie shops for his bride’
o ‘The Merchant’s misogyny is a product of his marital disillusionment’
o ‘May is made of masculine fantasy’
o ‘Januarie’s inability to analyse May’s deceit is essentially his refusal to accept it’
o ‘The Merchant bought more than he bargained for when he entered into the marriage’
o ‘The mirror Januarie sets up in the marketplace can only reflect the physical appearance of
women who pass it, not their intelligence, opinions of personality’
o ‘Januarie will never be able to see May’s adultery because he has never been able to
perceive her as anything other than his possession’
31
, • C David. Benson (2004):
o ‘The Merchant’s complaints are a conventional piece of medieval antifeminism’
o ‘Januarie is one of Chaucer’s greatest achievements in moral characterisation, but the
pilgrim Merchant is little more than a stock figure. The tale warns us to trust the tale, not
the teller’
o ‘The tale introduces a new standard of judgement (from the bible and classics) to the
world of fabliau that exposes the corruption of January and May’
• Derek Pearsall (2004):
o ‘There are many subtle anticipations and echoings: Januarie’s comparison of his sexuality
to evergreen laurel is echoed in the laurel in the garden where he is cuckolded; the wax to
which he compares the pliability of the desired wife is echoed in the wax his wife uses to
make a copy of the key to the garden’
o ‘January himself is something more than the traditional senex amans. To the disgust
traditionally associated with that figure, Chaucer adds a lurid physical reality’
o ‘The images of sexual possession as eating, the fantasies of prolonged rape, the haste, the
barrelful’s of aphrodisiacs give a partly comic effect, but always with un undertone of
disgust and repulsion’
• Holly Crocker – ‘May’s conduct demonstrates that the feminine passivity upon which
masculine performances of agency depend is of course an act’
• Elaine Hansen:
o ‘May is devised out of Januarie’s thoughts, just as Eve is out of Adam’s’
o ‘Early critics review May as a completely unfeeling wife because many were unable to
accept her vanquishing over the senex amans’
• Priscilla Martin:
o ‘The male exploitation of economic power for erotic purpose’
o ‘January believes he is inhabiting a romance which in finally bitterly exposed as a
fabliaux’
• John Thorne:
o ‘The tale draws attention to the fate of a sacred authoritative text in the hands of a naïve
enthusiast’
o ‘Januarie’s being of religious authority to his own selfish purposes leaves religion
untouched but adds to our sense of his delusion and error’
• Katy Lee – ‘women are repeatedly compared to food and drink in the Tales, particularly by
the unhappily married Merchant’
32
