Chaucer- critics Flashcards
Tolliver- January choosing a wife
“Januarie shops for his bride”
Stevens- women being deceitful
“a story intending to show the deceitfulness of women”
Wagenknecht - January being blind
“January’s blindness is the physical counterpart of the ignorance of marriage and of women he has shown all along”
Martin- Male dominance and marriage as a transaction
“the male exploitation of economic power for erotic purchase”
Saywood- January using religion as an excuse to satisfy his sexual desires.
“In Chaucerian comedy, there are no values, secular or religious, more important than survival or satisfaction of the appetite”
Coghill- Sympathy for January
“Januarie appears helpless, romantic, generous and tragic”
Tolliver- deception
January has an “inability to analyse May’s deceit”
Tina Davidson
“Chaucer shows the inevitability of youth’s victory over age”
