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‘The Merchant´s Tale’ is one of the stories, which belongs to the Canterbury Tales,
written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer at the end of the 14th century. It is a
farcical tale, which deals with an immoral universe and it is characterised by its erotism and
unconventionality. The main purpose of this essay is to analyse the characters of the tale,
especially the role that May plays throughout the whole text. Finally, I will conclude by
stating that, although both January and May commit immoral acts, May seems to get away
‘The Merchant’s Tale’ is the story of the senex amans made foolish by his young
beautiful wife. In Phillips view (p.1231), ‘The Merchant’s Tale’ is associated with the
medieval narrative genre known as a fabliau: a comic tale in verse of low bourgeois life,
involving trickery, often obscene, with a coarse sexual motive. Rudd (p.1282) agrees to
classify ‘The Merchant’s Tale’ as a fabliau and she claims that the relationships between
the characters of the tale reflect one of the main examples of courtly love, since the young
wife is seduced by her husband’s squire Damyan. Another key characteristic of the fabliau
is the use of irony. January believes to have a wife who is devoted to him when he is in fact
a cuckold. One of the key points to understand ‘The Merchants Tale’ is the fact that the
characters were never virtuous. Thus, the tale does not depict the process of the characters’
corruption since none of them seem to prove their nobility. Phillips agrees with this idea
Routledge, 2001)
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when she explains that January is a selfish old man driven by his lechery (Phillips, p.1243).
His wife May is only a passive recipient that he uses to fulfil his sexual desires. January’s
view of marriage as something physical rather than sacred is not only immoral but quite
repulsive. In the words of Phillips (p.1244), January sees his marriage as a ‘convenient
source of sexual pleasure and an heir for his money and land: something he can buy,
without concern for the feelings of his partner’. January treats May as a mere possession
and his opinion of women in general does not vary much from that. This point of view can
be seen in the way he uses the pronoun ‘his’: ‘That wyf is mannes helpe and his confort;
His paradis terrestre, and his disport’ (ll. 1205) According to Hansen (p.2506), May is the
fantasy of an old man who is eager to prove his virility and wants to regain his lost youth
by acquiring a young beautiful wife. Nonetheless, May does not represent an innocent
victim. In Hansen’s words, the narrator of the story who in this case is The Merchant,
maintains ‘that the May, January thinks he sees is merely a reflection of the old man’s
pathetic needs’ (p.2587). Hansen goes on to explain that the qualities January claims to
admire of May are quite unlikely to be real. She demonstrates to be guilty of lust since she
has an affair with her husband’s squire. Therefore, January’s description of May in lines
1600-4 which includes the beauty and moral virtues considered to be ideal in the Middle
3Phillips, p. 124
4Phillips, p.124
5Chaucer, Geoffrey, The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale, ed. by M. Hussey
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Ages is not credible (p.2528). However, when January’s repugnant thoughts and actions are
described in the moment he goes to bed with May, our perceptions of the characters might
change. As Hansen points out, when the narrator uses the simile ‘The bryde was broght
abedde as still as stoon’ (ll.1818), it can be assumed that she is sexually inexperienced.
Consequently, May becomes a figure to be pitied. This demonstrates that our sympathies
As the name of the characters may suggest, the nature of the union between January
and May is unnatural. She represents freshness and youth whilst January is described as an
old man who craves for a young wife in a desperate way. Expanding on this matter, Brown
(pp. 129-1309) explains that their marriage was led to create conflict and that it is closely
related to the nature myth of Pluto and Proserpina. They both happen to be present at
January’s garden when Damyan’s seduction over May takes place. Proserpina is on May’s
side whilst Pluto sympathises with January. The myth about the origin of spring is quite
relevant when it comes to the story between January and May. As Proserpina, May tries to
escape from her husband’s restraint whenever she gets the chance. (ll.2132-310) Just as
Pluto resides in the darkness, January’s blindness prevents him from seeing what his wife
does. Due to this fact, May is free to do whatever she pleases and she chooses the garden to
commit adultery. At the same time, Proserpina is allowed to leave the underworld and come
8 Hansen, p. 252
9Brown, Peter, Chaucer at Work: The Making of the Canterbury Tales, (New York:
Longman, 1994)
10 Chaucer, Geoffrey, ‘The Merchant’s’ Tale, in The Riverside Chaucer, gen. ed. by
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to earth for just one season each year. This suggests that May’s infidelity is compared here
with the arrival of spring. The fact that May and Damyan commit adultery on a peer tree is
another essential factor to understand the tale. The ‘Pear Tree’ story was quite popular in
the Middle Ages and it was basically about the cunning of women and their capacity to
trick their husbands. The essence of Brown’s argument (p.13111) is that the garden is
portrayed in the text as an erotic place meant to satisfy the sexual desires. An example of
this can be seen in ‘thynges whiche that were nat doon abedde’ and ‘He in the gardyn
parfourned hem and spedde’ (ll.2051-2). Brown goes on to explain that January seeks for a
paradise on earth and he associates this idea with the garden and later on with May. This
can be spotted in the lines (1331-212) ‘paradys terrestre’ and ‘hevene in erthe’ (p.13113).
This whole concept of ‘paradise on earth’ is intimately related with the Garden of Eden. A
tree is the focus of the sin committed by desire. Both January and May participate in this
range of immoral actions and Damyan represents the snake, the demon who seduces May
mind some other key factors that can be found in ‘The Merchant’s Tale’ as well as the
11Brown, p.131
12Chaucer, ll. 1331-2
13Brown, p.131
14Pearsall, Derek, The Canterbury Tales, (New York: Routledge, 1985)
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cynicism between January and his advisors Justinus and Placebo. Nevertheless, I do not
believe that the author’s intention is to make condemnation of the sacrament of marriage
but to question the morality of the characters. I agree with Pearsall when he writes that the
author is criticising men who let women to be in charge and basically certain aspects of
human sexuality. (p.19416) On the one hand, May represents the female figure who, despite
committing immoral acts, manages to get away with it. She succeeds when she tricks
January into believing what she wants him to believe and although she is guilty of adultery
she remains unpunished. As Brown puts in, ‘[i]n spite of all that January can do, it is she
who takes control’. (p.13017) Nonetheless, even though her affair with Damyan is described
in terms of romantic love, the narrator criticises her immorality and specially that 'she has
sold herself cheap’ when it comes to her marriage with January. (p.20018) On the other
hand, January depicts quite the opposite. In the words of Pearsall, ‘January’s blindness, his
self-deception, his lack of understanding of himself and of his actions, makes him a figure
of ridicule and contempt’. (p.19919) Despite the immoralities of May and January, it could
be assumed that tale finishes with a ‘happy ending’ since May gets away with her affair and
January remains deceived. Nevertheless, Brown points out that no matter how ignorant
January is or how successful May is in getting away with her trickery, there are
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consequences to their actions (p.13420). It is true to say that Chaucer does not bestow a
clear direction to interpret the message of the text. However, the reader has already made
judgements of the character’s attitudes at this point. The fact that the characters seem to be
satisfied with their situation at the end of the tale contrasts with what the reader may get to
feel about them. In other words, Brown argues that we could 'regard the tale as an exercise
in black comedy (with a happy ending that inverts the usual expectations of that
It might be concluded from this that May does emerge victorious in ‘The
Merchant’s Tale’. As Phillips points out, January’s selfishness and lechery prevent him
from seeing the actual truth which clouds his reason even before he was literally blind. His
unethical behaviour and his real purpose with his marriage make their union an act against
God and nature. Furthermore, his immoral and dishonourable intentions go against all
medieval standards. At the same time, the worst sins for a married woman in the Middle
Ages were indiscipline and adultery. Nevertheless, this cannot be seen in the text since, in
the words of Phillips, 'the lack of explicit or implicit condemnation of May is striking’.
(pp.124-12522) Rudd agrees with this idea when she writes that the author plays here with
the common saying that ‘love is blind’ and also the fact that women possess the capacity to
20Brown, p. 134
21Brown, p. 134
22Phillips, pp. 124-125
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deceive and ‘talk their way out of anything’ (p.12823). In short, I agree with the authors
previously mentioned in the sense that May does not get any sort of punishment for her
actions. However, would it be right to judge May for her affair with Damyan when she is
clearly unhappy and treated as a mere possession by her husband? Finally, I believe that ‘it
is as inevitable that May will triumph over January as it is inevitable that spring will
23Rudd, p. 128
24Brown, p. 129
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Bibliography
Benson, L. 1987. The Riverside Chaucer. 3rd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Brown, P. 1994. The Making of the Canterbury Tales. New York: Longman.
Hansen, E. 1992. Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. Berkeley: University of California
Press.
Rudd, G. 2001. The Complete Critical Guide to Geoffrey Chaucer. New York: Routledge.