Lines 55-98 Flashcards
Summary of 55-98
- excellent thing for man to take a wife as he can get an heir and live happy unlike young bachelors who are suffering from unrequited love
- married men who are bound enjoys life and wife who will not leave him until death.
However Theophrastus disagrees saying a wife is only after a man’s money .
‘Glorious thing” “fruit of his tresor”
-hyperbolic
- ambiguous illusions of the wife as its either a mans most treasured posession or best buy
- his reasons for marriage are entirely self serving and to satisfy his own needs not about love and connection
-makes January appear selfish and greedy
-for him a wife is a bargain because sex and service come for free.
“Blissful and ordinant” “as a bird or a beast”
-contrasts the life of a married man and the hardships of a bachelor
-criticises bachelors as living frivolously in freedom but lacks stability and fussliment of marriage
- ironic as January ignores the complexities of marriage dismissing bachelorhoods as lonely and directionless
-Chaucer uses januarys narrow view to highlight is ignorance of the challenges of marriage
- as well as unwillingness to consider any their perspective
-he makes being single sound good
“To take a wyf is a glorious thing “love and serve” “bedridden”
-merchant claims this
- obviously ironic and satirical as his prologue undermine this
The irony of his exaggerated hyperbolic praise creates a satirical tone mocking both Jans naive belief and marital Bliss and societal ideas of wedlock
Assertion that life will love and serve her husband even if he is bedridden is highly idealised and unrealistic for emphasising this irony and January’s delusion .
“ yok of marriage ybound” “under noon arrest”
-metaphor
-suggests that marriage while a duty is restrictive and hints at the constraints is places on personal freedom
-imagery of the constraint and contrasting liberty of single life and bondage of marriage anticipates later suggestion of death do us part
“Who kan be so buxom as a wyf”
-wives described at the epitome of obedience fidelity and care
-rhetorical question
- exaggerated portrayal is ironic as this does not align this the merchants own experiences or the tales unfolding
“A trewe servant Dooth more diligence” “ as for to spare in household thy dispense”
-provides a contrasting view of marriage
-that his servant is more useful
- hilights the financial and emotional risks of marriage creating tension with earlier idealised depiction of wives
“Maystow been a cokewold”
-foreshadows jans eventual fate in the tale
“Deffie Theofrast and Herke me”
-dramatic tine shift as he dismissed theofraste
- merchant is defending marriage adding layers of complexity to his unreliable narraration
“Fruit” of his tresor”
-ambiguous alllusion of wives
- meaning she is ither a mans most prized possession or his best buy
Theofraste
-his ‘golden book of marriage’ famously argued against marriage suggesting it brought financial burden and emotional instability
- his views reflect the anti feminist view where women were often characterised as deceitful greedy or inferior
“Olde and Hoore” “ Yong wif and feir”
Contrast between old grey husband and young fair wife is established
-old man juxtaposed with the conventional literary figure of the courtly lover, young single and pining away beacuse the object of his desire ignored in m
“ on brittle ground they builde and brottleness”
- reference allusion to parable
“That bachelor is have often peyne and woe”
-single men are in pain an woe contrasting the merchants views which is that married men are in more pain and despair
