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

The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale: Plot Summary

One of the most important things you can do in preparation for the exam is to “know” the plot of The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale thoroughly. When you are familiar with all of the key events, you can then link them to larger ideas. Having an in-depth knowledge and understanding of the text will also help you to gain confidence in finding the most relevant references to support your response.

Below you will find:

• Overview

• Plot summary

Overview

The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale is a romantic fabliau from The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, a fourteenth-century English poet and author. The Merchant’s Prologue and Tale is a narrative poem which mocks the institution of marriage; it is a tale considered to be a part of the “marriage group”. As well as dealing with infidelity, the tale considers whether humans have free will or if human behaviour is influenced by fate and the gods. Thus, the poem considers the extent of self-determination within the confines of marital constructs.  

In Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the characters who recount the stories are from different walks of life, joined together by a common devotion to the religious martyr and saint, Thomas Becket. In The Prologue, Chaucer depicts a merchant who is riding with other pilgrims to Canterbury to pay homage to Becket’s shrine. The Host, who supervises the story-telling game the pilgrims engage in, asks the Merchant to tell a story about marriage. The Merchant is a recently married man, who is already unhappy with his new wife. The cynical Merchant decides to tell a story, instead of relating his own experiences with his cruel wife. An element of mistrust among the men is suggested here, which is later confirmed. 

The tale he tells focuses on an old knight – a powerful man called Januarie who has spent his life enjoying his freedom, but decides he needs to marry to produce an heir. He believes it is God’s wish that he marry, in order to create a “paradise” on earth. He asks his friends Placebo and Justinus for advice, but they give him contradictory replies which highlight controversies regarding marriage. Januarie’s lustful desire is illustrated as he dreams about young women before choosing to marry May, a young peasant girl not even twenty years old. He says he will be able to mould her and control her and she will easily provide him with an heir. The goddess Venus makes Januarie’s squire Damian fall in love with May. Although Januarie keeps May close by, Damian and May meet and begin a love affair which is conducted through secret letters. Paranoid that May will betray him, Januarie builds a walled garden so he and May can be alone together. This garden alludes to the Garden of Eden, as Januarie describes the pleasures they will experience there. May and Damian, however, have planned to meet in the garden, with May having produced a wax mould of the key. 

However, Chaucer introduces the theme of fate when the Greek gods intervene in the affair. The Greek god Pluto strikes Januarie with blindness. Januarie’s vulnerability leads him to keep May even closer by his side. Meanwhile, in the garden, Damian hides in a pear tree and waits for May. When Januarie and May enter the garden, she asks her blinded husband to help her climb up the tree so she can pick a pear. The biblical Tree of Knowledge alludes to May’s loss of innocence, as well as traditionally Christian interpretations of Satan’s temptation of Eve. Chaucer’s Merchant describes how the Greek gods, Pluto and Proserpina, discuss the morality of the humans’ affair. Their conversation distances the humans from direct responsibility for their actions and adds a further element of fateful inevitability to the tale. 

In order to expose May’s betrayal, Pluto restores Januarie’s sight so he can see his wife and Damian in the tree’s branches together. Proserpina, furious at Januarie’s attitude towards May and other women, decides to provide May with a good excuse to protect her from Januarie’s retribution. With Proserpina’s guidance, May tells her husband that his sight must still be imperfect as it has only just been restored. She adds that she has been trying to help heal his sight, and that she has been told struggling in a tree with a stranger is a cure. Januarie believes her, strokes her stomach and they embrace.

Chaucer ends The Merchant’s Tale with an ambiguous resolution. As May and Januarie return to their marriage, the Merchant suggests an unhappy and unfaithful marriage is “fated” between man and woman. The Epilogue contributes to this cynical conclusion. The Host laments that he is tied to a bitter wife and hopes God saves him from an unfaithful one at least. The Merchant’s Tale is left unresolved as the Host, doomed to an unhappy marriage, does not believe he can add any more to what has already been said.

Plot Summary

The Prologue: Lines 1213–1244

• In The Prologue, the Merchant says that marriage brings weeping, wailing and sorrow

• The Merchant describes his wife as a “shrew”, a woman worse than Satan:

  • He compares her lack of patience to the obedient wife in a previous tale 

• The Merchant says that although he has only been married two months, even if a man was stabbed, he could never tell as sad a story as his

• The Host asks the Merchant to tell the story 

• The Merchant says he will tell a story about marriage, but not his own

The Merchant’s Tale: Lines 1245–2418

• The tale focuses on Januarie, an old, wealthy and successful knight

• As a single man for sixty years he has been promiscuous, indulging his “bodily desire” “on women”

• Januarie believes it is God’s wish that he marry and produce an heir

• He asks advice from his friend, Justinius, who says he opposes marriage and brings up Januarie’s poor history with women

• Placebo, another friend, suggests Januarie should make his own decision

• After dreams about young women, Januarie eventually chooses a young peasant girl called May

• However, one of Januarie's squires, a young man named Damian, falls in love with May:

  • It is said he has been affected by the gods

  • He is so in love with May that he becomes ill from his unrequited love

• Concerned for his young squire, Januarie sends his wife, May, to comfort him

• At his bedside, Damian passes a note to May which declares his undying love for her:

  • In reply, she gives a love letter to him

• With Januarie keeping a close eye on May, she and Damian begin a secret relationship by letter 

• Januarie builds a secret garden in which he and May can be alone

• Januarie becomes blind suddenly and insists that May holds his hand at all times

• May steals the key to the garden and makes a “mould” out of wax, which she gives to Damian

• She tells Damian to meet her in the garden and hide in a pear tree

• At this point, the gods Pluto and Proserpina discuss the humans’ actions

• Pluto says he will restore Januarie’s sight so he can see his wife’s infidelity

• Proserpina, disgusted with Januarie’s attitude to love, says she will help May hide her affair

• When Januarie takes May into the garden, May tells him she wants a pear:

  • She asks him to help her up into the tree

• She and Damian begin a sexual encounter in the pear tree

• Pluto restores Januarie’s sight and when he sees his wife and Damian together, he is outraged

• May, with Proserpina’s aid, tells him that he is mistaken and his sight must still be blurred from the sudden light:

  • She adds that she was struggling in the tree with a stranger for him, as she has been told this is a cure for his poor sight

• He believes her and they embrace, then return to his palace

The Epilogue: Lines 2419–2440

• The Host disapproves of May and prays that God will keep him away from women like her

• He states that the Merchant's tale proves women are deceitful by nature 

• He begins to complain about his wife but pauses, suggesting he does not trust the men as they may tell her what he has said