Contradictions and Self-Contradictions in Chaucer's Poetic Strategy

Abstract

In their comments on the contribution th a t the Merchant’s Tale makes to the theme of marriage in The Canterbury Tales, Chaucerians remain perplexed by the internal contradictions of the poem and of its Prologue. At the outset, the Merchant as speaker appears to bewail his condition as an aggrieved husband (IV. 1213-18), as he draws a contrast between the “pacience” of Griselda and his wife’s “passyng crueltee” (1225). Thus, it might seem appropriate to identify a common dramatic purpose between the predicament of the teller, as an embittered spouse, and th a t of his major character Januarie, who comes also to know marital disappointment. However, it is also evident th a t the two speakers pursue quite different argumentative strategies: Januarie, a t the close, is seemingly reconciled to May’s deception in the pear-tree, but he is also the object of the Merchant’s bitte r sarcasm, which is supported by the Host’s equally angry rejoinder (2420) on the wiles of women.