the merchants tale

Geoffrey Chaucer author of the Canterbury Tales wrote a tale titled the Merchants Tale. The Host had a competition on the way to Canterbury. The competition was to see who could tell the best story. The winner of this competition would get a grand feast. There was one story that really stuck out and it was the merchants Tale.

The merchant’s tale is told by a merchant in the group of people going to Canterbury. The merchant was a married man. He was married to a shrew. His wife was terrible to him. He would tell everyone of his wife’s horrible cruelty. He believed that all men who are married are doomed to live in sorrow and misfortune. His tale was told according to his own knowledge. The Host asked him to tell the story because he believed the merchant was knowledgeable in the art of marriage.

The Merchants tale began with an old knight. The Knight was a 60 year old lusty man, named January, who decided it was time to settle down and get married. He believed it was the will of God for men and women to get married and have a son to inherit his father’s wealth. January decided to marry a young lady named May. Before he decided to ask for her hand in marriage he talked about it with his friends. One of is friends named Justinius said he should not marry May. January decided to marry her anyway. After the priest blessed their marriage bed they consummated their marriage. They had a servant by the name of Damian who was in love with May. Damian became sick. January sent May to see about him and while she was there he slipped her a love note. As time passed they continued to sneak each other love notes. All of a sudden January became blind and was very over protective over his wife. He demanded she be by his side at all time. May and Damian would arrange special meetings in the garden and go in the pear tree and have sex. Pluto was angry at May’s deceit and granted January with his sight again. With his sight back January saw his wife and Damien in the pear tree. Pluto’s wife Proserpina says men are lecherous and provided May with an excuse which was he was just seeing things. He believed his wife and that was the end of the Merchant’s Tale.

The merchant’s tale was just a story of a love triangle between January, May and Damian. It is also an instance of an old man being hoodwinked by a young woman. It is about how men should not marry women unless they can satisfy them. It proves that women can and will find a man who can satisfy her if she isn’t being satisfied. The tale also shows the Merchants bad experience with marriage and shows he has been deceived by a young woman since he was speaking from knowledge. It also shows how women are sneaky and they have the upper hand in marriage even though the man doesn’t know it.

In conclusion Geoffrey Chaucer used the Merchants tale told by the merchant to channel in on love triangles. He also used it to symbolize thing. One thing was the name January symbolized an old man. May symbolized young woman He symbolized winter against spring using January and May. Justinius symbolized when good advice is rejected. Lastly the moral to of the tale is men don’t go after a woman unless you can satisfy her because she will find a man who can.