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Merchant's Tale context (Women (To a modern reader this presentation…
Merchant's Tale context
Women
Women had no political or independent power - they were treated as the property of their fathers/brothers/husbands
marriages were usually arranged - for women it was to ensure financial stability, for men it was for sexual pleasure and to produce an heir.
As in AIH, women were believed to be intellectually inferior and ruled by their emotions. They had little function in a marriage except to be a doting wife and caring mother
The church saw women as the root of all evil because of Eve's actions in Eden. Women were seen to be representative of the temptations of the flesh. Church believed the ideal state was to remain celibate your whole life - but for the sake of the preservation of humanity, procreation was necessary, though only within the bounds of marriage
To a modern reader this presentation of women appears archaic and misogynistic, but to a contemporary reader it would not be out of the norm
This also affects how we see May - we see her as a strong female character, acting out against the limitations placed on her by a patriarchal society to satisfy her own sexual desires.
Boccaccio's Decameron
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In the ninth tale, Boccaccio tells of a young wife who deceives her husband by telling him that anyone who climbs up their pear tree will see those on the ground having sex. To test the theory, the husband climbs the tree and sees his wife having sex with her lover. she convinces him the tree made him hallucinate but he chops down the tree anyway
Garden of Eden
Biblical paradise, but also the location of the fall of man - many parallels to be drawn here
In some ways January attempts to recreate Eden in his beautiful garden - "so fair a gardyn i nowher noon". To contemporary audiences, this attempt to recreate Eden would be evidence of his hubris and therefore his downfall richly deserved. Garden may provide a sense of prophetic irony - its similarities to Eden would suggest a similar downfall of January
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Other Tales
Clerk's tale
The clerk tells the story of the perfect Griselda - who's husband pushes her fidelity past the limits of human endurance. At the end the clerk says that it is an allegorical story that represents the relationship between Church and Christ and that no Earthly woman can hope to match Griselda's patience. The Merchant appears to ignore this point and chastises his wife for not replicating Griselda - this undermines the Merchant's views on marriage
Wife of Bath
Depicted as a strong female character: she has been married 5 times and gains mastery over all of them through bullying and sexual blackmail. She shows the position of widow to be extremely advantageous and suggests May is clever in her decision to marry an old man. "Despite her own shortcomings, and without conscious effort on her part, May is automatically the beneficiary of the legal, social, and economic advantages concomitant with the status of widowhood in the Middle Ages" - Margaret Hallissy
Theofrastus
A Greek philosopher - a number of his works are inherently anti-feminist, he depicts wives as nagging, deceitful, complaining and suspicious of their husbands
Estates Satire
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3rd estate: ordinary people living ordinary lives, providing services for the rest of the population. represent about 96% of the population
estates provided a moral and functional structure in which people could be placed, and an ideal against which people could be measured
Estates satire praised the glories and purity of each class in its ideal form, but was also used to show how society had got out of hand
Fabliau
A contemporary comic tale characterised by sexual obscenity - often revolved around the stock character of the senex amans who becomes a foolish, cuckolded husband
Merchants in the 14th C: mercantile class was experiencing a time of increasing prosperity, expanding international markets, and growing wealth. there is a lot of mercantile imagery in the tale to reflect this
Janus: The key was originally the identifying attribute of the Roman God Janus, who was 'the key bearing God'. this imagery is incredibly ironic
"Janus was so powerful and secure that he could regulate the comings and goings of Jupiter himself. But for all his careful precautions with the key to his garden gate, Januarie cannot even prevent the entrance of his own squire” - David Burchmore