The Wanton Cynic In The Merchant's Tale

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The Wanton Cynic in The Merchant's Tale The Merchant's Prologue and Tale presents the darkest side of Chaucer's discussion on marriage. Playing off both the satire of the moral philosopher, the Clerk, and the marital stage set by the Wyf of Bathe, the Merchant comes forth with his angry disgust about his own marital fate. Disillusioned and depraved, the Merchant crafts a tale with a main character who parallels his own prevarication and blind reductionism while he simultaneously tries to validate his own wanton life by selling his belief to the other pilgrims. As both pervert reality through pecuniary evaluations on different levels, however, both are exposed to be blind fools, subject to the very forces that they exert on others. As this reversal happens and the Merchant satirizes Januarie blindness, Chaucer reveals the Merchant's blindness, giving him the very significance that he had spent his whole tale trying to deny. Januarie falsifies and destroys import as he loses himself in his "fantasye", reducing reality to objects that he believes he can mold to his own lustful imagination. Thus, he simplifies and subsumes all else under currency or property. Indeed, he exhibits the very traits of his narrator, a merchant-someone who purchases merchandise only to turn around and sell it at a profit. Januarie, therefore, concerns himself with the worth of an object rather than the object itself and, as he tries to find a bride, quite literally tries to shop for the girl who will become his wife: "Heigh fantasye and curious bisynesse Fro day to day gan in the soule impresse Of Januarie aboute his marriage. Many fair shap and many a fair visage Ther passeth thrugh his herte nyght by nyght, As whosotooke a mirour, polished bright, And sette it in a commune market place, Thanne sholde he se ful many a figure pace By his mirour."

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