Antinomic Cluster Analysis and the Boethian Verbal Structure of Chaucer's 'Merchant's Tale'

Author / Editor
Arrathoon, Leigh A.

Title
Antinomic Cluster Analysis and the Boethian Verbal Structure of Chaucer's 'Merchant's Tale'

Published
Language and Style 17:1 (1984): 92-120.

Description
Throughout MerT synonyms for the Boethian values of true bliss and sorrow are juxtaposed to develop the theme of the woe that is in marriage--parallel to the "contemptus mundi" theme of the "Consolation." The protagonist of MerT uses Boethian synonyms but in his rejection of reason inverts the terms and their moral values in the "Consolation."

Chaucer Subjects
Merchant and His Tale.
Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations.