The Merchant's Tale - critical review

In The Canterbury Tales, the Merchant’s Tale and the Franklin’s Tale have several similarities and differences. Damian, of the Merchant’s Tale, and Aurelius, of the Franklin’s Tale, are two characters who reflect each other. The two husbands of the tales, Averagus and January, are opposites of each other. Dorigen and May, the wives of the tales, also do not reflect each other. The Merchant’s Tale is not a virtuous tale, while the Franklin’s Tale is a virtuous tale.

In The Merchant’s Tale, Damian is the good-looking young man who tempts May to cheat on her husband. May is much younger than her husband, January, and is not impressed with him. “God knows what May was thinking in her heart, seeing him sit there in his shirt apart, wearing his night-cap, with his scrawny throat. She didn’t think his games were worth a groat.”(373) May becomes bored and tired of January, so she then pursues the younger, better-looking, Damian. May and Damian began having an affair behind January’s back and he never found out. Aurelius is the character in the Franklin’s Tale who reflects Damian in the Merchant’s Tale. Aurelius is a squire, similar to Damian, and he is also is in love with the wife of the tale that he is present in. Aurelius is in love with Dorigen, but the problem is that she is a faithful wife to her husband, Averagus. Dorigen makes a mistake by promising Aurelius that she will marry him, but only if he performs a miracle. “I might perhaps vouchsafe your love, since I perceive you groan so piteously. Look; on the day the coasts of Brittany are stone by stone cleared of these hateful rocks by you, so that no ship or vessel docks in danger.”(416) The rocks disappear and Aurelius proclaims Dorigen as his wife. In both tales, the Merchant’s Tale and the Franklin’s Tale, the squires are the men who win the woman in the end and the husbands are left out of the picture.

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In the Merchant’s Tale, May is married to an immoral husband, January. January is an old man who marries a young woman for the wrong reasons. He believes that an older woman, one of his age, is not a suitable wife, but a younger woman is much better. “But when they’re young a man can still control them with his tongue, and guide them, should their duty seem too lax just as man may model in warm wax. So let me sum the matter in a clause; I will have no old woman for this cause.”(362) January was very wrong in choosing a younger wife, and in the end of the tale his decision comes back to hurt him. Averagus, of the Franklin’s Tale, is a much different man than January is. Averagus is a virtuous man who possesses all the characteristics of a knight and treats his wife with full respect. As the tale describes him, “In Brittany, or as it then was called, Amorica, there was a knight enthralled to love, who served his lady with his best in many a toilsome enterprise and quest, suffering much for ere she was won.”(409) January and Averagus are two opposite men, one is immoral and the other is virtuous, but when the tale comes to an end both lose their wife to a squire.

The wives of the two tales, May and Dorigen, are also two opposite characters. May is an unfaithful wife who does not agree to the marriage contract that she signed with January. After a very short time, May becomes tired of January and she commits adultery with her lover, Damian. "Ah, how she wept, fresh as she was, and bright, who loved her Damian, and with so benign a love that sudden death was her design unless she could enjoy him."(379) Dorigen, the very moral and faithful woman, was the wife of Averagus in the Franklin's Tale. Dorigen respected her husband and was always honest and faithful with him. Although Dorigen was tempted by another man, Aurelius, she overcame the temptation. "She mourned, lay wakeful, fasted and lamented, strained by a passion that could be contented only by him, and set the world naught."(411) While Averagus was away at war, Dorigen was a trustworthy wife and acted according to their marriage contract in all its fullness.

Overall, the Merchant's Tale was not a very moral tale, while the Franklin's Tale

was very moral. The Merchant's Tale had many examples of immoral actions. The main immoral action in the tale was that of May. May had cheated on her husband January several times and yet, he didn't catch her. In the end of the tale it seems as though January has finally caught May in her affairs, but she fools him. "Went up in the tree, Damian pulled up her smock at once and in he thrust. And when King Pluto saw this shameful lust, he gave back sight to January once more and made him see far better than ever before."(386) May is caught, but she talks her way out of the mistake and proclaims that January’s eyes were "hazy". The Franklin's Tale was the opposite of the Merchant's Tale and it was full of virtue. Dorigen's character alone is an example of moral values, and she also had moral feelings. Her choice to make her wish to Aurelius so selfless and for the shipmen was very moral. Averagus, the knight, was also a very virtuous man. His decision to allow Dorigen to fulfill her promise that she made to Aurelius, and let her marry him, was very courageous. "All may be well, but you must keep your word. For, as may God be merciful to me, I rather would be stabbed than live to see you fail in truth. The very love I bear you bids you keep truth, in that it cannot spare you."(429) Dorigen and Averagus are two characters who provide this play with the moral value it needs to win the prize dinner.

The Merchant's Tale is one of entertainment and immoral characters that make

bad decisions. The Franklin's Tale, on the other hand, is full of virtuous characters that make very respectable choices and decisions.