Chaucers Canterbury Tales - Marriage as Portrayed in Merchants Prolog

Marriage as Portrayed in The merchants Prologue and Tale The story of Januaries jointure to May and her subsequent infidelity with Damyan allows for non only Chaucers view of marriage to come through, but excessively includes the opinions of coetaneous writers. Chaucer allows his views to be made kn pretend got as the narrator and his views could also be said to infiltrate the speeches of the Merchant. Justinus and Placebos views are also accounted for as the fictional characters also air their opinions on the institution of marriage. In this way, Chaucer has allowed for a fair visual sense of discussion of marriage. Chaucer places the character of Januarie in Pavia, which has a reputation for brothels. In this slightly uncouth place, Januarie is in a self-imposed race against time to watch a wife. At 60 years old, Januarie is pulsateting married precisely because he feels that he should before he dies and believes that, like St Paul says, to get married strictly in order to avoid sin, is perfectly reasonable. Januarie wants a wife of warm wex in order to be able to escape her to his own demands and needs. His friends would have liked to have advised Januarie upgrade on his choice of wife, however there was no time. Januarie sees the marriage very such(prenominal) as a business transaction and he uses his friends to scour the visit for suitable women as it is a quicker way of finding the ruff deal. Like Januarie, Justinus is concerned with the economic ideals of the union. However he does have further concerns as to the age difference that will occur. He soon sees the gap of infidelity on the wifes part. Unlike Januarie who quite simply requires a delightful face and a weak character, Justinus advises that the woman should have Mo goode thewes than ... ...nfidelity is wrong. The Merchant says little about the business like manner in which the marriage took place, but has more to say about the untrustworthy nature of women, his cynicism from his own relationships showing through his occasional selections of Biblical references to deceitful women such as Rebecca and Judith. The Tales own deceitful woman, May, yearns for a more emotional relationship and believes that she finds this with Damyan. However, he holds what appears to be a more typical male view of marriage. It is much(prenominal) more enjoyable to be a bachelor and to have no ties. Mays only emotional links with him, such as the letters they exchange, have to be disposed of in the privy. The mercantile, unromantic nature of marriage seems to be prevalent in most mens minds as women cannot be trust unless perhaps under some kind of bond other than purely spiritual.