The Two Saras of Chaucer's 'Merchant's Tale' ([E] 1603-08)

Author / Editor
Arrathoon, Leigh A.

Title
The Two Saras of Chaucer's 'Merchant's Tale' ([E] 1603-08)

Published
Ball State University Forum 25 (1984): 18-40.

Description
The Sara mentioned in MerT may not refer to Sara the wife of Abraham, as is commonly thought, but to Sara of Rages from the book of Tobit--a symbol of ideal marriage and a strong thematic contrast to January and May. The Merchant's late reference (line 1704) to Abraham's Sara may signal the narrator's confusion of the two.

Chaucer Subjects
Merchant and His Tale.