The Merchants Tale Essay Example

The Merchants Tale Essay Example The Merchants Tale Essay The Merchants Tale Essay In The Canterbury Tales, the Merchants Tale and the Franklins Tale have several similarities and differences. Damian, of the Merchants Tale, and Aurelius, of the Franklins Tale, are two characters who reflect each other. The two husbands of the tales, Averagus and January, are opposites of each other. Dorigen and May, the wives of the tales, also do not reflect each other. The Merchants Tale is not a virtuous tale, while the Franklins Tale is a virtuous tale. In The Merchants Tale, Damian is the good-looking young man who tempts May to cheat on her husband. May is much younger than her husband, January, and is not impressed with him. God knows what May was thinking in her heart, seeing him sit there in his shirt apart, wearing his night-cap, with his scrawny throat. She didnt think his games were worth a groat. (373) May becomes bored and tired of January, so she then pursues the younger, better-looking, Damian. May and Damian began having an affair behind Januarys back and he never found out. Aurelius is the character in the Franklins Tale who reflects Damian in the Merchants Tale. Aurelius is a squire, similar to Damian, and he is also is in love with the wife of the tale that he is present in. Aurelius is in love with Dorigen, but the problem is that she is a faithful wife to her husband, Averagus. Dorigen makes a mistake by promising Aurelius that she will marry him, but only if he performs a miracle. I might perhaps vouchsafe your love, since I perceive you groan so piteously. Look; on the day the coasts of Brittany are stone by stone cleared of these hateful rocks by you, so that no ship or vessel docks in danger. (416) The rocks disappear and Aurelius proclaims Dorigen as his wife. In both tales, the Merchants Tale and the Franklins Tale, the squires are the men who win the woman in the end and the husbands are left out of the picture. In the Merchants Tale, May is married to an immoral husband, January. January is an old man who marries a young woman for the wrong reasons. He believes that an older woman, one of his age, is not a suitable wife, but a younger woman is much better. But when theyre young a man can still control them with his tongue, and guide them, should their duty seem too lax just as man may model in warm wax. So let me sum the matter in a clause; I will have no old woman for this cause. (362) January was very wrong in choosing a younger wife, and in the end of the tale his decision comes back to hurt him. Averagus, of the Franklins Tale, is a much different man than January is. Averagus is a virtuous man who possesses all the characteristics of a knight and treats his wife with full respect. As the tale describes him, In Brittany, or as it then was called, Amorica, there was a knight enthralled to love, who served his lady with his best in many a toilsome enterprise and quest, suffering much for ere she was won. (409) January and Averagus are two opposite men, one is immoral and the other is virtuous, but when the tale comes to an end both lose their wife to a squire.