The Merchant's Tale Critics Flashcards
What does Turner say about blindness?
“he missees, he doesnt see clearly throughout”
What does Hallissy say about May’s intelligence as a woman?
“an intelligent women should not [financially] risk pregnancy, ergo, May is not intelligent”
What does Hallissy say about being married to an older man?
“widowhood in training”
What does Kelly say about husbands and wives?
“mutual love between spouses is notably absent”
What does Pearsall say about Chaucer’s comment on marriage?
“extended mock encomium of marriage”
What does Brunner say the marriage suggests?
“ironic and funny story about the folly of old men marrying young women”
What does Ackroyd say about marriage?
“battle of supremacy between husband and wife”
What does Brunner say about January’s desires?
“lusty appetite [and a] true carnal nature beneath a veneer of social responsibility”
What does Meally say about the lust of January?
“equal parts nausea and black comedy [when] January requires a heavy cocktail of aphrodesiacs”
What does Meally say about May as an object of January’s lust?
“a passive sexual object paralysed [in] horror at the nightmare of her wedding night/knight”
What does Ines say about the affair?
“sordid little liaison based on lust”
What does Brunner say about the mercantile nature of the story?
“cautionary tale [about] relationships [of] monetary terms”
What does Ackroyd say about fate?
“poem concerned with unsteady fortune”
What does Marcotte say about men and marriage?
“marriage equals unhappiness for men”
What does Trevor Whittock say about conflict in the tale?
“conflict between male and female [is] stressed by the conflict between age and youth”
