‘THE MERCHANT’S PROLOGUE AND TALE’: AN IDEA OF CHANGE
Corresponding author:
[email protected]
Received
24 December 2024
Revised
1 February
Accepted
06 March 2024
Available Online
15 March 2024
Abstract
IN GEOFFREY CHAUCER’S THE CANTERBURY TALES (C. 1387), THE MERCHANT’S STORY IS ABOUT AN OLD KNIGHT WHO DECIDES TO MARRY FOR THE FIRST TIME AT THE AGE OF SIXTY. THE GIRL HE CHOOSES TO MARRY IS TOO YOUNG TO BECOME THE RIGHT MATCH. THE PILGRIMS IN CHAUCER’S MASTERWORK GO THROUGH CHANGES THAT ARE DOCUMENTED IN THIS LITERARY TEXT. THESE ALTERATIONS CAN TAKE MANY VARIOUS SHAPES AND TAKE MANY DIFFERENT FORMS. THE MERCHANT IS ONE OF THESE TRAVELERS. IN THE FOLLOWING DISCUSSION, I WILL LOOK AT HOW ‘THE MERCHANT’S PROLOGUE AND TALE’ HANDLES DIFFERENT TYPES OF CHANGES. BY READING THIS ARTICLE, READERS WILL REALIZE THAT TRANSFORMATION IS NOT LIMITED TO ONE FORM OR SHAPE IN OUR LIVES. ALSO IT WILL OPEN A WINDOW ON LOOKING AT OTHER TALES FROM THE SAME PERSPECTIVE.
Keywords
CHAUCER
THE MERCHANT
CANTERBURY TALES
TRANSFORMATION
Full Text
The body of this article is intentionally hidden on the public page. Please use the PDF reader or the PDF download for the complete text.
References
[1]
Benson, L. D. (Ed), The Riverside Chaucer, 3rd Ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1987.
[2]
Dohal, G. H., Transformation in Chaucer’s the ‘Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale’. World Journal of English Language, Vol. 11, no. 2, pp. 121-126, 2021. Available: https://doi:10.5430/wjel.v11n2p121
[3]
Yakar, A. P., May as a Figure of Resistance in the Merchant’s Tale, Hacettepe University Journal of Faculty of Letters, Vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 548-561, 2021. Available: https://doi.org/10.32600/huefd.888264
[4]
Shoqairat, W., & Kraishan, M., Toward a Theoretical and Analytical Framework for the Study of Sexual Humour in Chaucerian Fabliaux, Theory and Practice in Language Studies , Vol. 13, No. 7, pp. 1659-1667, July 2023. Available: https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1307.08
[5]
Transform. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English . Regularly Updated. [Online document], 1987.
[6]
Dueck, E. C., “The Wife of Bath’s Coverchiefs and Conjugal Sovereignty in Four Chaucerian Marriage Tales,” thesis, Simon Fraser University, 2007. Retrieved from https://summit.sfu.ca/system/files/iritems1/2688/etd2829.pdf
[7]
Gestsdóttir, S., “Chaucer’s female characters in the Canterbury Tales: Born to thralldom and penance, and to been under mannes governance,” Doctoral dissertation, 2010. Retrieved from https://skemman.is/bitstream/1946/4941/1/thesis.pdf
[8]
Marcotte, A., “Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales : Rhetoric and Gender in Marriage,” University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations, 2007. Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uno.edu/td/591
[9]
Wade, M. W., “Aesthetic Problem of Distance in Chaucer's Merchant's Tale,” Thesis, Oklahoma State University, 1969. Retrieved from https://shareok.org/handle/11244/25929?show=full
[10]
Vaněčková, V., “Women in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales: Woman as a Narrator, Woman in the Narrative,” Master’s Diploma thesis, Masaryk University, 2007. Retrieved from https://is.muni.cz/th/74590/ff_m/chaucer.pdf
[11]
Wikipedia contributors. ‘The Merchant's Tale,’ Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia , 28 Oct. 2021. [Online document], accessed 28 Oct. 2021. 1. Benson, C. D., The Canterbury Tales: Personal Drama or Experiments in Poetic Variety? In P. Boitani and J. Mann (Ed.), The Cambridge Chaucer Companion. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. 1. Chaucer, G., The Canterbury Tales. Trans. and Ed. N. Coghill, Harmondsworth: Penguin Books, 1977. 2. Fein, S., “Other thought -worlds,” in P. Brown (Ed.), A Companion to Chaucer , 2002, pp. 332 -48, Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.