Chaucer's Technique in Handling Antifeminist Material in 'The Merchant's Tale': An Ironic Portrayal of the 'Senex-Amans' and Jealous Husband
- Author / Editor
- Taylor, Willene P.
Chaucer's Technique in Handling Antifeminist Material in 'The Merchant's Tale': An Ironic Portrayal of the 'Senex-Amans' and Jealous Husband
- Published
- College Literature Association Journal 13 (1969): 153-62.
- Description
- Attributes January's cuckholding in MerT to "his own stupidity," reading Chaucer's deployment of antifeminist motifs as deeply ironic and part of his broader thematic concern to show that "everyone is morally responsible for his own acts." Chaucer's alterations of his source material clarify the irony, and the Merchant's "sarcasm and venom toward January" at times reinforce it. Nevertheless, the Merchant is a "confirmed misogynist" and May receives the "fitting punishment" of marriage to the "despicable old knight."
- Chaucer Subjects
- Merchant and His Tale
- Sources, Analogues, and Literary Relations