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The Merchant's Prologue and Tale - Context - Coggle Diagram
The Merchant's Prologue and Tale - Context
Antifeminist influences
Theofrastus - wrote the satiric 'Golden Book on Marriage' - depicts wives as nagging, deceitful, complaining and suspicious of their husbands
Literary genres
Courtly love - literary perception of love that emphasised nobility and chivalry
originally created for entertaining the nobility
this kind of love focused nobility on actions not family wealth, appealing to poorer nights
a way for nobles to express love not found in marriage
focus is upon noble acts of devotion
elevated the position of women in literature
Fabliau - a comic, coarse and cynical tale that usually
involved a husband being deceived by an unfaithful wife
characterised by vivid detail and realistic observation
represented everyday life for middle and lower classes
Estates Satire - a medieval literary genre which gives an analysis of the vices and follies of certain societal functions e.g. professions
Roman de la Rose - medieval poem which tells the story of a lover's quest for the rose which symbolises his lady's love. The rose is to be found in a walled pleasure garden.
Deus ex machina - ancient Greek convention where gods are brought on stage during the climax
Boccaccio's Decameron - is set up with 10 people leaving Florence in fear of the Black Death – the stories are woven together by a common theme, the way of life of the refined bourgeoisie
14th century class structures
Peasant revolted in 1381 for a reduction in tax and change to their treatment
Most books were written in French or Latin which was inaccessible for a large majority of the population - therefore, Chaucer's writing in Middle English was more accessible to lower classes
Mercantile class was experiencing a time of increasing prosperity, growing their wealth
The play is set in 'Pavie', 'Lumbardye' which was famous at the time for bankers and brothels
Chaucer's life
Chaucer had many jobs:
Page
Clerk
Customs inspector
Soldier in English army
Studied law
In 1388, Chaucer went on a pilgirmage
Effects of the plague
Statue of labourers (1349) declared that labourers should be paid what they were 6 years prior (before the inflation in labour wages caused by the plague) - this was one of the causes of the Peasant's revolt
Sumptuary laws of 1363 told people what the could wear according to class as people of the working classes were pretending to be aristocrats with their new found wealth
Religion
Garden of Eden - Original sin
Gardens were symbolic of the perpetual virginity of Mary in medieval art and literature
Gardens of pleasure were places where the wealthy, particularly women, could enjoy cultural amusement and intellectual inspiration
Gardens were often used as a private place for couples to have sex as there was little privacy inside houses due to the lack of corridors
Song of songs - in middles ages, story was interpreted as being about Christ and the Church. Chaucer uses the Song of Solomon as ironic as it shows Januarie as lecherous as well as stupid for not understanding its metaphorical meaning
Pilgrimages: when Chaucer was writing, pilgrimages weren't as exclusively devotional - it was a profitable business as well as a popular past times.
Religious women
Esther - May is compared to 'Queene Ester' during the wedding feast as she sits with so beningne a chiere' and it was Esther's meekness and beauty that charmed King Ahasuerus, however, she also looked meek when she was plotting the death of Haman
Role of women
Women were seen to be the root of evil as a result of Eve's actions in the garden of Eden and were seen as representative of the temptations of the flesh
Women had no political power or autonomy in the middle ages and were viewed as property for fathers/husbands
Other tales
Clerk's Tale - tells tale of Griselda who is married to a count who pushes and tests her loyalty. Griselda is the ideal wife as she is patient and consistently obedient. The Clerk says his tale is on the relationship between Christ and the Church and that earthly women cant hope to match Griselda's patience
Franklin's Tale - tells tale of knight and lady who begin their relationship as courtly lovers their marriage is also threatened by a young squire in love with the lady. The overall message behind his tale is that love and mutual respect must be the foundations of a successful marriage
Wife of Bath's Tale - married 5 times, bullied and sexually blackmailed them so as to manage them. Her tale is of a King who marries an ugly old woman due to a rash promise - she is made beautiful when he gives her sovereignty.
Classical references
Wheel of fortune - Fortuna spins the wheel of fortune whilst blindfolded. Those at the top have good fortune and those at the bottom, bad. Idea that life is down to luck.
Pluto and Proserpina - Pluto fell in love with and abducted Proserpina. Proserpina was allowed to return to her mother and earth for 6 months every year and in this time, plants begin to bloom but when she returns to her husband, everything withers and dies. They represent winter and spring and death and rebirth.
Ovid's Pyramus and Thisbe - lovers forbidden to marry, they decide to elope but Thisbe is scared of by a lion and Pyramus thinks she's been eaten by the lion so kills himself. Thisbe then kills herself after finding him dead. Merchant's comment echoes Ovid's 'love will always find a way' [l:915] in reference to May and Damyan
Venus, the god of carnal love: 'this sike Damyan in Venus fyr’