The Merchant's Tale: Context (OCR A Level English Literature)

The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale: Context

Context should inform, but should never dominate, your reading of the text. Any comments on context must consider the significance and influence of the contexts in which the text was written and received. When exploring context for The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale, you should consider primarily the literary context, and then include any other relevant contexts as appropriate to the question. Each of the topics below links directly to the key themes and ideas in the poem:

• Literary context

• Social context

• Historical context

Literary context

When considering a poem’s literary context, it is important to explore the form and genre in which it is written, as well as anything the poem might do that defies the expectations of a particular genre. The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale can be thought of as a romantic narrative poem and a satirical fabliau. The sections below will explore each of these contexts in relation to the poem in more detail.

Fabliau

• The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale is in the form of a fabliau:

  • The fabliau was popular in thirteenth-century France

  • It tells a story (or fable) which contains moral messages

• Chaucer’s work may have been influenced by other similar collections of fabliaux, such as Boccaccio's “The Decameron” written in the early fourteenth century:

  • This features multiple tales written in vernacular language

• Although The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale is in vernacular English, it differs from conventional fabliaux in that it features characters from a range of classes and locations:

  • The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale was seemingly designed to be accessible to, and representative of, all

• Commonly, fabliaux included pranksters, schemers and cuckolded husbands, making the characters ironic because:

  • The Merchant’s hyperbolic complaints in the Prologue make his character a parody of unhappy husbands

  • May and Damian plot and scheme in order to continue their affair

  • Januarie is the cuckolded husband

• Unlike some of the other fabliaux, The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale focuses on the institution of marriage rather than Januarie, the senex amans 

• The poem can be considered a satirical fabliau

• Dramatic irony is created through an omniscient narrator:

  • This helps to poke fun at the characters’ folly and create comedy

  • For example, during May and Damian’s crude sexual encounter in the tree which Januarie cannot see, the gods manipulate events on Earth

• Chaucer weaves multi-layered perspectives through ambiguous narrators in the form of the Merchant and Januarie:

  • This blurs the lines between Chaucer’s views and societal perspectives

  • The aim appears to be to present pervasive attitudes through everyday “voices”

Narrative poem

• The Canterbury Tales can be considered a narrative poem or epic poem

• It tells a story, often employing octosyllabic verse

• The poem’s narrative style is typical of romantic literature of the time which tells tales of chivalry and courtly romance

• In traditional courtly tales, the writer idealises knights and their ladies as paragons of virtue and purity:

  • Damian is presented as a typical lovesick knight

  • He is “ravysshed” by love and “brenneth” in feverish and passionate love

• Yet Chaucer’s tale deviates from conventional romances in a number of ways:

  • Chaucer satirises conventional courtly romances, such as “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight”

  • Damian’s love for May is presented as merely lust

  • His love for her becomes dubious because Chaucer also draws attention to Januarie’s lechery and desire for an heir

• Chaucer parodies classical literature to satirise social institutions and present a cynical debate

• He blurs conventions of genre by employing various allusions 

• For example, The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale alludes to biblical tales about the downfall of man:

  • May and Damian meet in a garden not dissimilar to the Garden of Eden

  • The tale uses comparisons between Damian and the serpent in the Tree of Knowledge 

  • In the tale, Januarie paraphrases the Song of Solomon from the Old Testament, corrupting its meaning as he implies lewd motives for his marriage

• His poem also makes reference to ideas of chivalry found in romantic poems :

  • The poem may have been influenced by works such as Jean de Meun’s and  Guillaume de Lorris’ allegory “Roman de la Rose”

  • Parallels can be drawn between Placebo and Justinus and Friend and Reason in the “Roman de la Rose”

• The tale also makes classical references to Roman and Greek gods

Social context

A poem’s social context can be thought of as the social and political environment in which it was written, and the social and political environment in which it is understood. Chaucer’s influences include continental classical literature which was written in French and Latin, as well as the vernacular speech found in popular narrative poetry at the time. As well as this, Chaucer’s work satirises religious ideals of the Middle Ages. All of these aspects of social context are explored in more detail below.

Language in the Middle Ages

• In the fourteenth century, English was seen as the language of the common man

• Latin was used within the Church and French was the language of the court

• Chaucer was one of the first to write in vernacular English:

  • In particular, his poem is noted for its repeated use of “swyved”, a colloquial word for “rotated or screwed”

• Chaucer was influenced by Italian writers such as Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio whose work was poetic in nature

• He borrows from French and Latin in the speech of socially elevated characters:

  • Januarie’s dialogue employs French vocabulary, such as “heritage” and “chartres”

• The peasant characters, by contrast, tend to use words derived from Old English:

  •  For example, May speaks in Old English: “wenche” and “kepe” 

• Chaucer is noted for legitimising English as a sophisticated and literary language:

  • Rhyming couplets throughout the poem elevate the rhetoric

• The poem is recognised for creating a literary and poetic language for all classes of society: 

  • It combines vernacular speech with lambic pentameter and octosyllabic verse

Religious influence

• Among Christians of the Middle Ages, pilgrimages were popular in order to prove devotion to one’s faith 

• The Canterbury Tales follows pilgrims on their way to Canterbury Cathedral:

  • The cathedral was a popular pilgrimage location

  • It contains the remains of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, murdered in 1170 by supporters of King Henry II

  • This made him a Catholic martyr and saint

• By employing a pilgrimage as a frame for his story, Chaucer presents a range of voices across classes and makes the characters relatable to all types of individuals: 

  • Thus, Chaucer examines and satirises English society

• Attitudes to marriage in the Middle Ages were influenced by the teaching of St Paul and laws created by the Church to regulate sexual conduct

• His teachings advocated marriage as means of legitimating sex and belittling lust by linking it to hell:

  • St Paul states: “It is better to marry than to burn” (1 Corinthians 7:9)

• St Paul created the concept of marital debt, which encouraged both husband and wife to have sex when requested by their spouse:

  • It states, “For the wife does not rule over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not rule over his own body, but the wife does” (1 Corinthians 7: 3–5)

  • These ideas are evident throughout The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale, challenging religious ideals regarding sex through Januarie’s lechery  

Historical context

While background knowledge of the historical context in which a text was written and received is useful, any reference to historical context should be made judiciously and linked carefully to the themes in the poem and the focus of the exam question. Below you will find some comments about historical context relevant to the key themes and ideas in the poem.

• Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London in the early 1340s

• Chaucer served in the Hundred Years’ War between England and France:

  • This served to empower a merchant class which then dominated England

• Chaucer lived through the Black Death, which wiped out a third of the population, particularly affecting the lower classes:

  • This led to further tensions as a powerful merchant class monopolised trade 

  • The poem can therefore be considered an examination of class divisions in that it depicts “everyday” characters from different backgrounds 

  • The tale employs stock characters and stereotypes

• In 1381, the Peasants' Revolt broke out as farmers protested against unfair practices:

  • It can be argued Chaucer criticises pervasive attitudes to class through characters such as Januarie (a knight) and the Merchant

    • The knight is comical, ignorant and cuckolded

    • The Merchant refers to the “commerce” of picking a bride, highlighting how Januarie is able to choose his wife as if in a market 

• Although the narrator in The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale is ambiguous, the poem is satirical and presents ironic characters:

  • Certainly, Chaucer presents a bitter merchant who is arrogant and cynical

  • The Host, a clergyman, is portrayed as distrustful and miserable