MerchantÕs Tale
Thinksheet
Please respond to question 10.
1. What does the Merchant have to say
about the institution of marriage in his Prologue? How does he characterize his wife?
2. What are the views of the Knight in the
tale, January, on marriage? Why
does he decide to take a wife at age 60 and what were his views prior to this
time? What, according to his
views, are the attributes and purpose of a wife? What, in lines, 1415-1468, is he looking for in a wife?
3. What does the Knight have to say about
Theophrastus? (See lines
1293-1310). How does this detail
relate to the WifeÕs Prologue?
4. What advice do
Placebo and Justinus give? What might they stand for? What is the significance of their names?
5. How would you characterize the style of
this tale? What sorts of features
does it have? How does it compare
to the other tales weÕve read?
6. Look at the description of the wedding night
in lines 1818-1865. How are
January and May described? How
would you describe the tone and use of detail here? What is life like for May?
6. Who is Damyan? How does he compare to other lovers we
have seen? Palamon
and Arcite?
Hende Nicholas and Absolom?
8. How do the gods function in this
tale? How do they compare to the
gods in the KnightÕs Tale?
9.
Look at the MerchantÕs Epilogue. What type of wife does the Host have? How does his contribution add to the
Òmarriage group?Ó How
does the Òmarriage groupÓ develop?
10.
Line 1597 reads Ò love is blynd alday
and may not seeÓ and there are multiple references to trees in the tale, see
for example, lines 1461-1466 and line 1641. How do these two motifs function in the tale?