"The Garden Image in The Merchant's Tale" by Mary Joachim Waskovich
 

Date of Award

4-1971

Degree Type

Master's Essay - Restricted

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

English

First Advisor

John D. McCabe

Abstract

Early critics like G. L. Kittredge described The Merchant's Tale as "nothing but a tale of bawdry"; J.S.P. Tatlock finds it unrelieved in acidity, savage and repugnant. In presenting the traditional view of The Merchant's Tale, G. M. White finds it essentially satiric: the Merchant, duped by women and marriage himself, narrates a biting expose of an old fool, ridiculous in his moral blindness. A more recent view sees the tale as a "somewhat different kind of exemplum which, under the guise of realistic fabliau, is actually a sermon on the blindness and error of materialism." Another element of the tale, its humor and good nature, has been noted by Bertrand Bronson and others. And all these elements are present, but to account for this disparity of interpretation one must consider another aspect of the tale, its part in literary history.

Comments

An Essay Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Download

Share

COinS