critics Flashcards
Cathy o’neil, mays cleverness
‘mays cleverness and ingenuity mean that we root for her as she outwits the controlling janurie
Martin stevens, misogynistic
‘dimly misogynistic and bitter… a story intending to show the deceitfulness of women’
norman Harrington, self deprication
‘we are left to believe a level of happiness is possible through folly and self deprication’
Sam Brunner, choosing a horse
’ Janurie chooses a wife as he, or the merchant, would buy a horse. she is simply another piece of livestock bought to fufill a specific sexual and procreative purpose’
Cathy o’neil, imbalance of gender
‘the tale can be read as a critique of the gender imbalance of the medieval marriage market in which women were traded as commodities’
Yaker, yield to subjection
‘May does not yield to subjection, which the dominant medieval patriarch discourse of gender demands’
Benson, tale and teller
‘The Merchant’s Tale warns us to trust the tale and not the teller’
pearsall, disgust
‘The images of sexual possession … give a partly comic effect but always with an undertone of disgust and repulsion’
pearsall, janurie lawful
‘January is granted a kind of deformed moral consciousness so he is constantly preoccupied with whether what he is doing is right or lawful’
pearsall, poodle
‘Damian is no more than a poodle to this lady dog-trainer (May)’
barthard-smith, motif of deciet,the woman wins
The tale is no easily classified as misogynistic- the woman wins!’
barthard-smith, universal trait
‘he draws attention to the universal trait of women; their ability to deceive’
lee, challenging our views about women
‘challenging attitudes towards women which arguably still remain in our lexis in the form of names like ‘sweetie’, ‘honey’, ‘sugar’ and so on which are still used to address women’
Alexander pope, real and ideal
‘succinctly capturing the Tale’s relentless drive to expose the ‘real’ behind the ‘ideal’
Alexander pope, courtly love
‘rooted in physical desire as Chaucer mixes the elevated discourse of courtly love with the sordid reality of the lover’s thoughts and actions’
Tolliver, mercantile interest
‘January has a strictly mercantile interest in May’
bielder, januries folly
‘January’s folly is that he sees what he wants to see, rather than what is actually before him’
Hallissy, salvation
‘His very salvation is imperiled by his lust’
pearsall on the merchant
‘A tone of voice that persistently expresses bitterness, cynicism and sardonic humour’
Tolliver, masculine fantasy
‘May is made of masculine fantasy’
shores, courtly connection
‘Cynical condemnation of courtly convention’
