Vision, Truth, and Genre in the Merchant's Tale

1443 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Merchant's tale chaucer essay

Vision, Truth, and Genre in the Merchant's Tale

In the Book of Genesis, Adam and Eve eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, which gives them greater powers of perception but also causes their expulsion from Paradise. The story creates a link between clear vision and the ability to perceive the truth‹which, in this case, causes mankind to fall from a state of blissful ignorance to one of miserable knowledge. In the Merchant's Tale, vision and truth do not enjoy such an easy relationship. Vision is obstructed at both the metaphorical and the literal level, and the subversion of the fabliau genre challenges the idea of truthful representation. The Merchant's Tale destabilizes the notion of representation itself, problematizing man's relation to truth.

Chaucer uses a very strange metaphor to describe January's quest for a wife. The teller likens the old knight's mind to a mirror that has been set up in a common market, catching the image of every maiden who passes. January undertakes a near obsessive mental cataloguing of all eligible women:

Thanne sholde he se ful many a figure pace

By his mirour; and in the same wyse

Gan January in with his thoght devyse

Of maydens which that dwelten hym bisyde. (ll. 1584-7)

The more familiar the reader is with the conventions of the fabliau genre, the more likely he is to feel that something is not quite right. First of all, the life of the married couple before marriage and the story of how that marriage took place is not properly the subject of fabliau at all‹and here Chaucer devotes considerable space to it (Pearsall 4/12). Second, there is something so discomforting about the old man's search‹his mind becomes a ...

... middle of paper ...

...y reveals that there was an act of sexual intercourse between May and a man. But the child becomes an opaque sign because the true identity of the child's father would be a mystery‹not only for the reader and January, but for the adulterers as well.

Works Cited and Consulted

Chaucer, Geoffrey. "The Merchant's Tale." The Canterbury Tales: Nine Tales and the General Prologue. Ed. V.A. Kolve. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1989.

Fichte, Joerg. " Genre in The Merchant's Tale." New Views on Chaucer: Essays in Generative Criticism. Ed. William Johnson. Denver: Society for New Language Study, 1973. 9-16.

Levy, Bernard. "The Meanings of The Merchant's Tale." Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction. Ed. Leigh Arrathoon. Rochester, MI: Solaris, 1986. 385-403.

Pearsall, Derek. The Life of Geoffrey Chaucer: A Critical Biography. Blackwell, 1992.

Show More
Related

  • Blackbeard's Life, The Golden Age of Piracy, and Its Effect on Piracy Today

    2033 Words  | 5 Pages

    Blackbeard was a brave and most outspoken sea rovers who operated during early 1700s in the coastal regions of the English Southern parts of the New world. His piracy activities, together with his co-pirates are key sectors in United States of America’s history. Happening in the time eminently known as the golden age of piracy, their brave advances in sea robbery facilitated the gradual demise of sea hijacking and theft on the deep seas.1

    Read More

  • Women's Roles in Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and The Canterbury Tales

    1479 Words  | 3 Pages

    Nelson, Marie. "Biheste is Dette: Marriage promises in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales." 2001. Dept. of English, Wentworth University. 15 July 2003 <http://www.wentworth.edu/nelson/chaucer>

    Read More

  • Blackbeard: The World's Most Notorious Pirate

    784 Words  | 2 Pages

    Little is known about the infamous Blackbeard's early life; in fact, the first documentations of him are not recorded until the early 1700s, long after his childhood. Yet with so little knowledge of him, he is arguably regarded as the most notorious pirate in history due to his fearsome personality, distinguished look, daring acts of piracy, and stalwart death.

    Read More

  • Dive into the Histoy of Piracy

    768 Words  | 2 Pages

    The pirates are very active in the waters between the Red Sea and Indian Ocean, off the Somali coast, and in the Strait of Malacca. According to some estimates, worldwide losses due to piracy can be as high as 13-16 billion US dollars per year.

    Read More

  • Blackbeard Informative Speech

    242 Words  | 1 Pages

    Famous Pirate- Edward Teach “Blackbeard”: Blackbeard was the most notorious pirate in the history of seafaring. With a beard that almost covered his face, he would strike terror into the hearts of his victims, according to some early accounts, by weaving wicks laced with gunpowder into his hair, and lighting them during battle. A big man, he added to his menacing appearance by wearing a crimson coat, two swords at his waist, and bandoleers stuffed with numerous pistols and knives across his chest. Blackbeard’s lawless career lasted only a few years, but his fearsome reputation has long outlived him. Thought to have been a native of England, he was using the name Edward Teach when he began his pirating sometime after 1713 as a crewman aboard

    Read More

  • The Ever-Important Privateers

    1168 Words  | 3 Pages

    Privateering is said to be "almost as old as civilization itself" with the Japanese and Chinese practicing it as early as 1200 B.C (Massachusetts Society). It really started to pick up around the 1500s during Queen Elizabeth's reign over England. One of her major goals during her rule was to strengthen England's navy and eventually make it the world's number one sea power. To do this she created the Sea Dogs, also known as "Elizabethan Pirates", who were to go out onto the sea and attack Spanish ships (even in times of peace). Each was given a "Letter of Marque" as permission to deal in these acts of would-be piracy (Wikipedia.org). Though the Sea Dogs are famous for many things, one of the most remarkable is their assistance in the destruction of the Spanish Armada.

    Read More

  • Signification Through Structural Irony in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales

    2175 Words  | 5 Pages

    The structure Geoffrey Chaucer chose for his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, of utilizing a melange of narrative voices to tell separate tales allows him to explore and comment on subjects in a multitude of ways. Because of this structure of separate tales, the reader must regard as extremely significant when tales structurally overlap, for while the reader may find it difficult to render an accurate interpretation through one tale, comparing tales enables him to lessen the ambiguity of Chaucer’s meaning. The Clerk’s Tale and The Merchant’s Tale both take on the institution of marriage, but comment on it in entirely different manner, but both contain an indictment of patriarchal narcissism and conceit.

    Read More

  • Parody in The Canterbury Tales

    741 Words  | 2 Pages

    “The Canterbury Tales” was written in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer. These tales constitutes a frame story which each pilgrim has to tell their own story to the Chaucer, the pilgrim; not the poet. As we know, the tale itself is a satire, but the stylistic structure in the tales creates a sense that can be a parody as well. To support this idea of parody, it is need to know the definition of parody and how Chaucer use this style to make his own ideas clear through the general prologue and the tales such as “The Miller’s Tale” and “The Knight’s Tale”.

    Read More

  • Essay On Pirates During The Renaissance

    768 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Renaissance was a time of great change in Europe beginning in the late middle ages. Philosophies and culture shifted, and so did rebellion. Many feared the seas, for thieves and murderous gangs filled it. Privateers or crews who received funding from royalty or other authorities to fight enemies were corrupt, but they were not the main cause for worry.(Paine) Pirates were the ones who were feared by many and adored by few. Pirates traveled the seas in search of fortune. They would often murder, kidnap and use any other violence necessary to get what their greedy hearts desired.(Paine)(Aldrete) Only the most desperate and greedy would dare to join the bands of rebels because it took specific traits to be a pirate.(Aldrete) To be a successful pirate during the Renaissance, one needed fighting skills, perseverance, and the demeanor to carry out difficult and cruel tasks.

    Read More

  • Common Sense, Ethics, and Dogma in The Wife of Bath

    3341 Words  | 7 Pages

    Mandell, Jerome. Geoffrey Chaucer : building the fragments of the Canterbury tales. N.J. : Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1992.

    Read More

  • Privateering Presentation

    1332 Words  | 3 Pages

    Piracy today cannot be related to that of international law consent, because pirates do not act on behalf of their governments, this has long ended and the act of privateering was replaced with the navy.

    Read More

  • The Importance of Social Class Exposed in The Canterbury Tales

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Canterbury Tales. Trans. Nevill Coghill. Literature: The British Tradition. Ed.

    Read More

  • The Golden Age of Piracy

    2368 Words  | 5 Pages

    The Golden Age of Piracy began around 1650, and ended around 1730. Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea, but can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the criminal. The term has been used throughout history to refer to raids across land borders by non-state agents. A pirate is one who commits robberies at sea, usually without being allotted to do so by any particular nation. The usual crime for piracy can include being hung, or publically executed. Some of the most famous pirates who were killed either because of piracy, or because of natural causes, are Barbarossa, Stede Bonnet, Anne Bonney, Sir Francis Drake, Captain Greaves, William Kidd, Jean Laffite, Sir Henry Morgan, Mary Read, and Giovanni da Verrazano.

    Read More

  • Chaucer's Views on Women: Griselda and the Wife of Bath's the Loathly Lady

    3022 Words  | 7 Pages

    Mitchell, J. Allan. (2005). Chaucer's Clerk's Tale and the Question of Ethical Monstrosity. Studies in Philology. Chapel Hill: Winter 2005. Vol.102, Iss. 1; pg. 1, 26 pgs

    Read More

  • Piracy Essay

    1206 Words  | 3 Pages

    The concept of piracy dates back to ancient times. Initially small water ways were used for fast travel and trade, enabling an empire to trade and further expand its boundaries to new territories. As time progressed and scientific discoveries grew, naval advancements emerged and facilitated a new way to explore, travel, and discover. As ships became more regularly used, people of the world no longer were confined to land, they were able to move freely to areas that were once unobtainable. Advancements in diplomacy and trade grew extensively, but counter ideals involving raiding, murdering, and theft soon melded the navel techniques and branded a new idea which involved malevolent activity upon the water.

    Read More

More about Vision, Truth, and Genre in the Merchant's Tale

Open Document