‘In his ‘Prologue and Tale’ the Merchant presents a one-sided view of the battle

of the sexes.’ How far do you agree?

In Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’ the characters who recount the stories are all given
their own unique voice and style, and the Merchant is a perfect example of this. Due
to the nature of narration it is natural that his opinion would appear throughout the
Tale, colouring the audience’s judgment of the characters. With the ‘Merchant’s
Prologue and Tale’ Chaucer is presenting a story with different elements drawn from
literature, which shows the foolishness and blindness of an old knight in a cautionary
tale of cuckolding and deceit. Chaucer himself does not judge the characters, but
sometimes “he pokes a character in the ribs with a more fiercely accusing finger”1.
This is most true of the Merchant, a character that he directly controls and in many
ways mocks. However he allows the Merchant to tell his story, and lets the audience
decide by themselves.

The Merchant’s Tale is part of a section within the Canterbury Tales known as the
‘marriage group’ and in effect these all show the ‘battle of the sexes’ Each story gives
an account of a struggle between men and women, from the Wife of Bath’s
experiences with her many husbands – she sees marriage as a battle to win – to the
Clerk of Oxenford’s story of the patient, submissive wife Griselda. All of these stories
will have some bias in their retelling, and between the four marriage tales many sides
of the ‘battle of the sexes’ are addressed. Even within the Merchant’s Tale, however,
there are more characters with conflicting opinions to the Merchant.

If the Merchant is presenting a ‘one-sided’ view then an inevitable question is which

side is he on in the ‘battle of the sexes’? It would be fair to say that none of the
characters he shows are entirely ‘right’ or good. From his prologue and the descriptio
of his marriage and wife, including “I have a wyf, the worste that may be;” (line 6),
the audience would expect the Merchant to be thoroughly anti-feminist and take the
side of January within the marriage. Yet his story does not reflect this entirely. Apart
from his respect of January as a rich knight (“he lived in greet prosperitee”), January
is presented as a ‘foole’ and ignorant. One example of this is how he ignores all
advice given to him by Placebo and Justinus: “Be wedded whanne him liste, and
where he wolde.” (line 364) to “...chees hire of his owene auctoritee;” (line 385). He
is not in anyway protrayed as a wise man, and this would have made May’s betrayal
create sympathy and a sense of injustice. But once we judge the knight, the
cuckolding seems less intensely deceitful – he almost deserves what he gets in the
end. If the Merchant was being biased, surely the story would have made us pity
January completely, to further emphasise the infidelity of May.

January’s voice does appear through the story, making the Tale less ‘one-sided’ and
showing the view of a man who is not disillusioned with marriage like the Merchant.
He allows January to praise marriage, rather than just taking his biased view of the
whole process. January says that “That wyf is mannes helpe and his confort;
His paradis terrestre, and his disport.”(line 119) and it could be said that giving
January the chance to express his opinion is showing more than just a one-sided tale.
Nevertheless the appearance of this appraisal of marriage after the Merchant’s
complaint about women and his wife in particular highlight the foolishness of
January, and rather than being diplomatic in his telling, it seems that the Merchant,
1
The Chaucerian Voice
and Chaucer, are permitting January’s digressio only in mockery of him in an “ironic
contrast between the dream and the reality”2.

Although other opinions apart from the Merchant appear within the story, it would be
a fair observation to note that women are thoroughly under-represented in the
‘Merchant’s Tale’. The first time May is given a voice is at almost a thousand lines
into the play: ‘‘I have’ quod she,’a soule for to kepe As wel as ye, and also myn
honour’ (line 976). The only reason she speaks is to lie to January, and it seems that
the Merchant has only given her a voice to make the betrayal more effective. The
audience know that her words are false and it does in some ways create sympathy for
January. She is not ignored throughout the play, occasionally some indirect voice
appears through the Merchant’s narration. One example is “She preyseth nat his
pleying worth a bene.”(line 642). Although the Merchant is allowing us to see the
thoughts of May, this only has the effect of helping the audience notice the irony the
narrator has been subtly inferring throughout the story with the word ‘fresshe’ used to
describe her. Now she seems considerably less innocent than that word implies. Even
if the presentation of the story is not ‘one-sided’ because of the Merchant’s
consideration of other characters’ judgments, it is in that all of these that are taken
seriously are male.

The Tale does not end with May’s condemnation, as it could if the Merchant wanted
to tell a tale that was retribution for his unhappy marriage. Many fable style stories
would end in the betraying character receiving some kind of punishment, but January
entirely accepts May’s excuse and ends the story by “kisseth hire and clippeth hire
ful ofte,” (line 1201). This may be because the story of the pear tree is based on
Decameron by Boccaccio, and instead of changing the outcome of this Chaucer has
used it to great effect. There may be no chastisement of May, but the audience gets a
sense of injustice with the end in its original form. This reflects the feelings of the
Merchant at the time of the telling of the Tale, and does more adequately prove his
point of the “shrewe”-like wife, who always wins.

The framed narrative of the ‘Merchant’s Prologue and Tale’ allows more than one
opinion to appear – the Host, the Merchant, January, his advisors, and of course
Chaucer. The story, or digressio, within the Merchant’s narration of Pluto and
Proserpina is interesting because it shows the only couple who are equally matched.
They may not be entirely happy, but the argument at least has two sides. Proserpina
ends the argument with “Lat us namoore wordes heerof make; For sothe, I wol no
lenger yow contrarie.”(line 1104). This story could be a device by Chaucer to further
emphasise the struggle between the sexes in the main plot, which has little to do with
the Merchant (his voice is not apparent in this digressio, and there is a noticeable
change in tone). It could also be a comment by the Merchant, saying that the only
agreeable marriages are between gods. This strengthens his anti-marriage stance,
rather than just presenting an alternate viewpoint.

An important and basic argument against the statement that the Merchant shows ‘a
one-sided view of the battle of the sexes’ is that there are definitely other opinions
within his story. They may not amount to anything in the end, for example Justinus’
and to some extent Placebo’s advice: Justinus cautions January “ it is no childes pley
To take a wyf withouten avisement” (line 318). The other views are present, but in a
2
Burrow, John Irony in the Merchant’s Tale, Casebook Series: Macmillan Press, 1974
way they only show us January’s character and flaws. They are devices to help the
Merchant’s portrayal of January as a foolish man. There are more male viewpoints
within the story, but in the end they are all fooled, ignored, and betrayed by a woman.
This shows the Merchant’s view – and that of Pluto, the male god and representation
of mankind within the digressio - that all women are cunning and deceitful.

The context of the Tale and how marriage was viewed in the mediaeval era is
important to the understanding of the story. The easiest way of the modern audience
understanding the traditional view of marriage at this time is January’s fantasy of the
perfect marriage. “That womman is for mannes helpe ywroght”(line 112) shows the
commonly held belief that woman was made from man, for man – from the story of
Adam of Eve. This would have been universally accepted. The betrayal in the garden
is interesting because of this, the Merchant deliberately echoing the betrayal of Adam
in the creation story and consequently reminding the audience of the ‘place’ of
women in his eyes. Through the Clerk’s Tale and the hyperbole in this section, we
know that a wife should be submissive, for example: “’Do this’ seith he; ‘Al redy
sire,’ seith she.” (line 134) and “Al that hire housbonde lust, hire liketh weel.” (line
132). Although we can take this as the accepted position of marriage at the time, there
is evidence that Chaucer himself did not entirely follow this – Pluto and Proserpina’s
relationship is one illustration – and so we see that this is in fact the Merchant’s view
of the perfect wife. With his discontent about his marriage, it is obvious here that the
narration of the Tale is tinted by his unattainably high expectations of marriage.

It is obvious that the Merchant is giving us a biased view of marriage and the ‘battle
of the sexes’ within the Tale – a narration by a character would be unnatural and
unconvincing without some kind of inflection of the personality and emotions from
this character in the language. It would be fair to say, that the story is one-sided in that
the female perspective is rarely consulted. In the battle of the sexes, this is surely a
male account of a female victory. This is also inevitable it seems, the tale was
originally written by a man, retold by a male character, and about how a knight is
cuckolded. However there are other opinions in the story, but all these achieve in the
end is further emphasising the attitude of the narrator who is controlling them. In this
way the narration has to be one-sided; the Merchant is telling the pilgrims a tale to
prove the point that women are ‘shrews’ and that marriage is always going to end in
deceit and misery. The audience is expecting this from the beginning, and are not
disappointed.