CANTERBURY TALES – THE MERCHANT’S TALE
BY: Geoffrey Chaucer
Submitted By:
Almira Doreen Abigail O. Apor – 3rd Year HS
Submitted To:
Ma’am April Darling Jane Belocura Hernandez
17 August 2009
CANTERBURY TALES – THE MERCHANT’S TALE
I.
Characters
The characters in this tale are quite few. The protagonists are: the Merchant and
January. The Merchant is the narrator if the tale; hence, it is called ‘The Merchant’s
Tale’. Through his work, he shows that he has a clear understanding and several
opinions on marriage which he has derived from previous experiences – either from him
or from somebody else. Most often, his opinions and insights are contradictory. January
is not the Merchant personified in the tale; rather, January is one of the characters used
by the Merchant as a symbol to prove his points, but he is the main viewpoint
character. In the tale, January is depicted as a knight born in Pavia that resides in
Lombardy. He has been for 60 years wifeless. While he holds several convincing
thoughts on the prospects of marrying after 60 years, he does not seem to show any
rationality towards his choice of wife, indicated by how he simply requested for a
woman brought to him so that ‘they may wed’. He lives up to the impression his name
gives – old, susceptible, and oblivious to the truth to the point of ignorance.
As for the antagonists, the people who hinder the protagonists from achieving
their goal, they are: May and Damian. May is considered an antagonist because
although she originally appears to be blameless and innocent, she ends up further in
the tale as an immoral wife with no fidelity towards her husband. She is depicted to be
very beautiful yet very disloyal. She is a young, ordinary village girl who January
happened to see, and thus, she ended up his wife. She is unfaithful towards January by
‘falling in love’ with Damian for the lack of a less crude term. Damian is an antagonist
because he is the one emphasized in the tale to have brought May to infidelity after her
marriage to January. He is a servant of January, but he is insubordinate. He lies that he
is sick in bed, and goes as far as deceiving his master of his affairs with May. He is one
who is unscrupulous and tricky – Machiavellian, to be exact.
The minor characters include: Placebo, Justinus, January’s men, Pluto, and
Proserpine. Placebo is one of January’s brothers. He is a supportive sibling, agreeing
with January’s decisions on marriage as well as his method on it. His name significantly
means ‘I shall please’. Justinus, on the other hand, is opposite Placebo in his opinions.
He is also a brother of January, and he does not agree with January’s prospects on
marriage, mainly due to his despair caused by his own wife. He seems to be caring
enough to share his insights on marriage to his brother in order to avoid him falling into
the same demise. January’s men are like his counselors. He goes to them to seek
advice and their opinions on the thought of him marrying. They all seem loyal with the
exception of Damian who is obviously not as loyal as the rest. Pluto is the god of the
underworld in Roman mythology. Here, he is portrayed to someone who strongly
believes that women are by nature disloyal. He sides with January after seeing his wife
cheating on him with another man and grants January his sight back so he may fully
see the treachery his wife has been committing all that time. He seems to be a strongwilled god, eager to point out the number of time women have committed infidelity to
his own wife Proserpine. And here, Proserpine is the wife of Pluto. Roman mythology
states that she was the daughter of Ceres, goddess of agriculture, who was swiped
away by Pluto after being infatuated by her beauty. This may be supporting proof
enough as to why Proserpine sides with May in this tale. While Pluto was the one
responsible for having January acknowledge the hidden side of May, leading to his
interrogation, Proserpine is the one responsible for giving May the appropriate response
to January’s question on her adulterous acts.
II. Conflict
The conflict of the tale here is wholly Man vs. Man. Supporting details include
May’s infidelity, Damian’s insubordination, and Justinus and Placebo’s debate on
whether January should marry or not. Pluto and Proserpine are represented here to be
seemingly human; therefore, we cannot say it is Man vs. God because neither Pluto nor
Proserpine are main characters, and their conflict is the mildest.
III. Plot
IV. Summary
The tale itself begins with an introduction on January, a recent Christian convert,
who is thinking about taking a wife, which fuels a debate between his two brothers. He
sees May and takes her as a wife, but soon after his servant Damian falls for her, and
the two become lovers, unknown to January. Shortly after that, January loses his sight,
and one day, May takes January out to the garden in order to meet with Damian up a
pear tree, yet January is unaware of this plan since he is blind and old. Pluto chances
upon the two and pities January, granting him his sight back in order for him to see the
misdeed of his wife, yet his wife Proserpine antagonizes him by giving May the
appropriate response to January’s interrogation. In response to what May told him, he
could not respond in a fit of anger because he was unsure of what he saw and he
believed her, so instead forgives her, marking the end of the Merchant’s Tale.
V.
Reflection
The character that I seemingly admire at the very least is Pluto. Although he is
the god of the underworld and has kidnapped Proserpine, he was able to show pity
towards January. Ironically, he dealt justice in a sense between the married couple by
giving January his sight back. What I admire in him is that he is an irony in himself. He
is nearly the god of chaos and has committed mischief in the past, according to Roman
mythology, yet he was able to feel pity and understanding. He brought justice, which is
something no harbinger of chaos would do. Yet although his attempt was foiled by
Proserpine, it was brilliant of him to even try.
There are quite a number of values in this tale. The first is decisiveness and
rationality. Had January been more decisive, he would not have been met with the
demise of a disloyal wife. Had he been more rational on the thought of marriage, he
would not have married at all; thus, sparing him of May and her felony. The second is
measuring the true value of things. If only January had not been blind and had not
been swept by May’s appearance, he would not have been deceived by her even until
the end. Had he measured the pros and cons of marriage, this tale would not have
developed. The third is truthfulness. It is wrong to deceive others, and it is very
immoral to lie about a grave misdeed. What May had committed with Damian is
extremely sinful, and she should have been damned by Pluto, god of the underworld,
the moment he saw her crimes, yet it is a shame that gods cannot interfere directly
with the affairs of mortals. The fourth is loyalty and knowing when to seek help. This is
closely followed by humility. The tale conversely shows loyalty, meaning that it implies
that we must be loyal whilst it shows disloyalty and deceit. It also shows that even the
most gallant of knights know when to seek counsel. This is under no implication that
January is indeed a gallant knight, but nevertheless, it was wise of him to seek the
opinions of his subordinates in order to derive a firm decision. Knowing when to seek
counsel is closely followed by humility because it is sometimes troublesome for one of
higher dignity to listen to people of lower dignity. Above all, this tale bears several
values, perhaps even more that what I have cited, and better than above all, these
values are applicable even to our modern life. This is the true beauty of the Canterbury
Tales.