Context (OCR A-Level English Literature): Revision Notes

Context

Understanding the context of The Merchant's Prologue and Tale is essential for your A-Level study. Context should inform your reading of the text without dominating it. When you discuss context in essays, always link it to the text's significance and influence, showing how the historical, social and literary environments shaped Chaucer's work.

Assessment Objective 3 (AO3) is worth 50% of marks in your comparative essay. This means you must demonstrate understanding of how context influences the text. However, avoid simply reproducing prepared material about context. Instead, select contextual factors that directly relate to the specific exam question and use them to shed light on the text's meanings.

For The Merchant's Prologue and Tale, you should focus primarily on literary context, then include social and historical context as appropriate to the question.

Literary context

When examining a poem's literary context, you need to explore the form and genre in which it is written, as well as how it might challenge or subvert genre expectations. The Merchant's Prologue and Tale functions as both a romantic narrative poem and a satirical fabliau.

Fabliau

The Merchant's Prologue and Tale is written in the form of a fabliau, a genre with specific characteristics:

Origins and purpose:

• The fabliau was a popular genre in thirteenth-century France
• It tells a story (or fable) that contains moral messages
• Chaucer was likely influenced by similar collections of fabliaux, such as Boccaccio's The Decameron written in the early fourteenth century

Typical fabliau elements in The Merchant's Tale:

• Pranksters and schemers: May and Damian plot and scheme to continue their affair
• Cuckolded husbands: Januarie becomes the classic deceived husband
• Ironic characterisation: The Merchant's exaggerated complaints in the Prologue make him a parody of unhappy husbands

Chaucer's innovations:

Unlike some fabliaux that focus solely on the cuckolded husband (the senex amans or old lover), The Merchant's Tale examines the institution of marriage itself. The poem can be considered a satirical fabliau, using humour to criticise social institutions.

Creating comedy through narrative technique:

Chaucer employs dramatic irony through an omniscient narrator who knows more than the characters. This helps to mock the characters' foolishness and create comedy.

Narrative poem

The Canterbury Tales functions as a narrative poem or epic poem, meaning it tells a story, often using octosyllabic verse (eight syllables per line).

Conventions of romantic literature:

The poem's narrative style is typical of romantic literature of the period, which tells tales of chivalry and courtly romance. In traditional courtly tales, writers idealise knights and their ladies as paragons (perfect examples) of virtue and purity. Damian initially appears as a typical lovesick knight: he is "ravysshed" (ravished) by love and "brenneth" (burns) in feverish and passionate love.

Blurring genre through allusions:

Chaucer parodies classical literature to satirise social institutions and present a cynical debate. He blurs conventions of genre by employing various allusions to different literary traditions.

Influences from chivalric poetry:

The poem also references ideas of chivalry found in romantic poems. It may have been influenced by works such as Jean de Meun's and Guillaume de Lorris' allegory Roman de la Rose. Parallels can be drawn between Placebo and Justinus in The Merchant's Tale and Friend and Reason in Roman de la Rose. The tale also makes classical references to Roman and Greek gods.

Social context

A poem's social context encompasses the social and political environment in which it was written and understood. Chaucer's influences include continental classical literature written in French and Latin, as well as vernacular speech found in popular narrative poetry of the time. Additionally, Chaucer's work satirises religious ideals of the Middle Ages.

Language in the Middle Ages

Language hierarchy in the fourteenth century:

Chaucer's linguistic innovation:

Chaucer was one of the first writers to use vernacular English for serious literature. His poem is particularly noted for its repeated use of "swyved", a colloquial (informal) word meaning "rotated or screwed". Chaucer was influenced by Italian writers such as Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, whose work was poetic in nature.

Language and social class:

Chaucer uses language to indicate social class and status. He borrows from French and Latin in the speech of socially elevated characters:

• Januarie's dialogue employs French vocabulary, such as "heritage" and "chartres"

By contrast, peasant characters tend to use words derived from Old English:

• For example, May speaks in Old English: "wenche" and "kepe"

Religious influence

Pilgrimage culture:

Among Christians of the Middle Ages, pilgrimages were popular in order to prove devotion to one's faith. The Canterbury Tales follows pilgrims on their way to Canterbury Cathedral.

Chaucer's use of pilgrimage as a literary frame:

By employing a pilgrimage as a frame for his story, Chaucer presents a range of voices across classes. This makes the characters relatable to all types of individuals. Thus, Chaucer examines and satirises English society through these diverse perspectives.

St Paul's teachings on marriage:

Attitudes to marriage in the Middle Ages were heavily influenced by the teaching of St Paul and laws created by the Church to regulate sexual conduct. His teachings advocated marriage as a means of legitimating sex and belittling lust by linking it to hell.

The concept of marital debt:

St Paul created the concept of marital debt, which encouraged both husband and wife to have sex when requested by their spouse. It states: "For the wife does not rule over her own body, but the husband does; likewise the husband does not rule over his own body, but the wife does" (1 Corinthians 7:3-5).

These ideas are evident throughout The Merchant's Prologue and Tale, challenging religious ideals regarding sex through Januarie's lechery.

Historical context

While background knowledge of historical context is useful, references to it should be made judiciously and linked carefully to the themes in the poem and the focus of the exam question.

Geoffrey Chaucer's life:

• Geoffrey Chaucer was born in London in the early 1340s
• Chaucer served in the Hundred Years' War between England and France
• This conflict served to empower a merchant class which then dominated England

The Peasants' Revolt of 1381:

In 1381, the Peasants' Revolt broke out as farmers protested against unfair practices. It can be argued Chaucer criticises pervasive attitudes to class through characters such as Januarie (a knight) and the Merchant:

• The knight is comical, ignorant and cuckolded
• The Merchant refers to the "commerce" of picking a bride, highlighting how Januarie is able to choose his wife as if in a market

Satirical presentation:

Although the narrator in The Merchant's Prologue and Tale is ambiguous, the poem is satirical and presents ironic characters. Certainly, Chaucer presents a bitter merchant who is arrogant and cynical. The Host, a clergyman, is portrayed as distrustful and miserable.