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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

with it remaining triumphant in the end.

‘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

1 Phillips Helen, An Introduction to the Cantebury Tales: fiction, writing, context

(Houndmills, Basingstoke, England: Macmillan press, 2000)
2 Rudd Gillian, The Complete Critical Guide to Geoffrey Chaucer (New York,

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

(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1966)

6 Hansen, Elaine, Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender, (Berkeley: University of

California Press: 1992)

7Hansen, p. 258

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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

vary throughout the text.

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

Larry Benson, 3rd edn (Oxford: Oxford UP, 1987)

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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

and draws her into sin.

Having considered what was previously mentioned, it is also reasonable to bear in

mind some other key factors that can be found in ‘The Merchant’s Tale’ as well as the

narrator’s intentions. According to Pearsall (p.19314), the tale provides a ‘mock-encomium

11Brown, p.131
12Chaucer, ll. 1331-2
13Brown, p.131
14Pearsall, Derek, The Canterbury Tales, (New York: Routledge, 1985)

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of marriage’ in (ll.1267-139215). This consists on an argument about marriage full of

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

15Chaucer, ll. 1267-1392

16Pearsall, p. 194
17Brown, p. 130
18Pearsall, p. 200
19Pearsall, p. 199

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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

convention), or just downright cynical’ (p.13421).

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

succeed in overcoming winter’. (p.12924)

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.

Pearsall, D. 1985. The Canterbury Tales. New York: Routledge.

Phillips, H. 2000. An Introduction to the Canterbury Tales: reading, fiction, context.

Houndmills, Basingstoke, England: Macmillan press.

Rudd, G. 2001. The Complete Critical Guide to Geoffrey Chaucer. New York: Routledge.