His desire to appear fashionable is effective, but when the reader becomes aware of his business, which deals in French currency, the whole impression he creates is contradicted. He may be dignified in his conduct but he is in debt, “So estatly was he of his governaunce”, this is frowned on by the Church, so he is obviously a secular man.
Chaucer creates irony by making a point of describing the merchant as ‘worthy’ twice, he is hardly ‘worthy’ if he has an illegal business. Chaucer adds irony again when he claims, “But, sooth to seyn, I noot how men him calle”, this emphasises that he is the complete opposite of worthy and is actually quit insignificant.
He indicates that the merchant speaks his mind and will give his impressions willingly, “His reasons he spak ful solempnely”. However, he insists on discussing his wife, “I have a wyf, the worste that may be;”
He talks selectively of his ‘winnings’ and conceals the fact he is in debt, which is seen as dishonest.
Chaucer intends to insults the merchant, as the merchant deceives other pilgrims into believing that he is a completely different person and Chaucer acknowledges the reader of his secret life, “Ther wiste no wight that he was in dette”.
Chaucer may have a particular merchant in mind when writing it and he may be inviting the reader to guess his name, so he may be writing of a person he knows and generally dislikes.
The merchant claims to have full knowledge of everything to do with marriage, “Assaye whoso wole, and he shal finde”. Irony is also created here as the merchant then claims he has only been married two months, “Thise monthes two, and moore nat, pardee”, and yet he still believes that still believes he knows everything possible, which involves marriage. This also implies that he is arrogant as he can’t possibly know everything about marriage after only two months.
It is quite clear that the merchant has a hatred of women, “Koude tellen of my wyves cursednesse!” and it then becomes evident that he is applying his idea of his wife to all women.
He feels his wife is full of spite and is ill-tempered in every way, “She is a shrewe at al”. It is quite clear that he has no respect for his wife and has a very cynical view of marriage.
He has a dysfunctional marriage even though he has been married for such a short period of time, and so this highlights another fault of his. He is not used to failure so when his relationship fails he is quite shocked, “Tellen so much sorwe as I now here,” and he also demonstrates difficulty to deal with the emotional impact, “For soory herte, I telle may namoore”.
The merchant is disillusioned with the idea of marriage and cannot seem to say one positive comment about his wife, “For thogh the feend to hire ycoupled were”. It is evident that he is in complete despair of his wife and has no explanation, “I wolde nevere eft comen in the snare”.
He doesn’t tell the tale of his own marriage, but instead uses it as a starter point, “Gladly, quod he, but of myn owen soore” and he concludes that all married men have a similar mind as himself.
However, this is not Chaucer’s view towards marriage, I feel he is using the merchant to portray a very common view towards women and marriage.
Chaucer obviously has very little regard for the merchant and he encourages the reader to agree with him.
