99- 149 Flashcards
“ a wif will laste and in your house endure/we longer than thee list paraventure” “ obedient and virtuous
Deeply ironic as it foreshadows the unhappiness he will experience in his own marriage to may
- undermined by the narrative as may ultemalty cuck holds him
“All that hir housband lust hire liketh weel”
- particularly ironic as may is shown to prioritise her desires ( Damian) over Jan
Merchants voice
-follows his reference to theofraste the learned authority on why it s not good to take a wife and is set up as a mock refutation of that argument
“a wyf is gods gift/yiftes of fortune”
-starts with gift of goad then of fortune
—common medieval personification
-merchants inventory of other gifts espouses his personal value system for they are all material goods
-he equates a wife with a material possession
“Shadwe upon a wall”
-simile
- refers to the passage of time and the inevitable loss of sunshine
“Paraventure”
- means by chance
-reverting back to the idea of Fortune implicitly reminding the audience that fortune can be bad as well as good
“Marriage is a ful of greet sacrament”
Does not go onto elaborate
-Sacrament is a ritual of the church in which something mystical is believed to occur in the form of the spiritual intervention of God to sanctify a transformation of the participant
-In the middle ages the sequence of seven sacraments was frequently illustrated in the church. It was important part of their spiritual environment against the devil and his works
-A marriage as a sacrament was said to have derived in its sanctity from God’s creation of Eve for Adam which the narrator goes onto to relate
“I speak of folk in secular estaat”
He pointed out that unlike other sacraments marriage is available only to those who are secular that is not in religious orders implying what the church actually preached that the marriage condition was less holy thean the clerical celibacy
“He liveeth helpless”
Secular man without a wife is helpless
-Implying a wife is man’s help
-As Eve was for Adam
-The word is repeated three times
-I redevelops as the reader is like to consider the story of Adam and Eve
“ he made him eve”
Biblical illusion leads readers to consider the story of Adam and Eve and how Eve was a legendary hindrance rather than a help to her husband working against rather than his best interests
“Belly naked”
Adam’s own responsibility for the fall is not considered here instead he’s described as’..’
An expression which suggests is innocent and vulnerability again reminding the reader how women are the cunning gender which leads to man’s demise
-Once again foreshadowing January ultimate fate with may”
“His paradis””o flesh they been”
-Eve is described as Adams recreation and earthly paradise
-he dwells on the element of the marriage ceremony in which the man and women has said to become one flesh
-Whether A ans Es relationship was physical while they were in paradise was a topic of theological debate in the middle ages
-Saint Augustine was of the view they did have a sexual relationship but it was one of a kind which no human being living could ever understand or imagine and therefore was sinful to think about
‘Wyf is mans help”
Play this narrator has no such inhibitions and believed that Adam was having a delightfully sexual active life in paradise until he went and ruined it for him.
The excessive idea idealistaion not on the emphasises jans delusion but also set up the dramatic irony of his eventual betrayal
“How might a man Han any adesritee that hath a wyf” “al ready sire” “she keepers his goods” “ wastes never a deal”
Open to the rhetorical question containing two expletives one of them in Latin
-Enters a mock fight of imaginative fantasy as a narrator creates the behaviour and voice of an ideal wife
- passage is full of repetitions and hyperbole deliberately over inflating the picture of the wife to ridiculous length for
Presents wives as a solution to our problems
-idolising women that they not only bring emotional fulfilment but practical like household management and economic
“O blissful order”
The assertion that marriage is so blissful that no one can describe it ironically suggests that this place may be indescribable because it’s non-existent
-He equates bliss with slavery and women being obedient and having no will of their own
-It’s intense clarification of marriage, a comic picture of total obedience
‘Ever man that halt him worth a leek”
Iron is the main effect as the overinflated style contrast with for example the low style idiomatic reference to leeks
-Suggests that men who don’t recognise value are unworthy
“Upon his bare knees ought all his life”
Image of a man praying on his knees is again comic
-Although prayer is supposed to be one of offering up thanks the posture is reminiscent of penance
“He may not be deceived” “ he boldly beren up his head”
Stating that no man will be deceived is heavily ironic followed by the suggestion that he will be able to hold up his head in public provided he does everything that his wife tells him to as as January’s fate is to be deceived
“ wolf werken as the wise/ so as women will they rede”
Ironic point is emphasise by the rhyming of wise and bracketed by two lines which end in read meaning advice
-The implication is that our wife’s advice is not worth having and perhaps advice for the narrator has just been so enthusiastically giving is not so reliable either
