The Role of Women in the Miller’s and Merchant’s Tale. We can comfortably read Chaucer's The Merchant's Tale, as a tale about a deluded, old husband who is cuckolded by his young, resourceful wife. Like Chaucer's other fabliaux The Miller's Tale, The Merchant's Tale relies upon conventional comedic oppositions between old, ignorant husband and young, resourceful wife to inform its narrative on adultery. Like the plot of The Miller's Tale, within The Merchant's Tale January's wife, May, constructs an elaborate ruse to allow for an adulterous tryst with Damian, her secret liaison. May leads her (temporarily blind) husband to their fruit garden - in which Damian is hiding within a pear tree - so that she may climb upon his back and enter the tree. Yet soon after the tryst begins, January recovers his sight and sees the adultery. Like Alison in The Merchant's Tale, May elides recriminations from her husband. But how does she achieve this elision? Alison's avoidance of recriminations stems from her husband's ignorance over the adultery. Yet January sees May cheat with Damian. The similarity between the plot devices thus only goes so far. As we will see, May achieves her elision by convincing January that she did not
