The "Shipman's Tale" exemplifies the sarcastic view of marriage taken by Chaucer. Here, his wife along with his cousin, Sir John the monk, cuckolds a noble merchant. The merchant is completely trusting of his wife and his cousin, but still they take advantage of him. Money is the underlying theme in this tale. First, Sir John asks the merchant if he'd "contrive to lend [him] a hundred francs" (Chaucer, 164) which would actually be used to seduce the merchant's wife. The merchant gladly loans him the money; not knowing his cousin had ulterior motives. Then, the merchant leaves on a business trip and leaves his wife alone in their home, along with the mo

"The wife defines her relationship with her husband at the beginning in terms of his niggardliness, and offers her body at the end in repayment of the hundred francs; she offers herself to Daun John in return for money"(Cooper, 281).

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. London: Penguin Group, 1977.

Kittredge, G.L. Critical Essays On Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. Toronto: University of

nk. With the merchant never once questioning their honor, the wife and the monk take advantage of his leave in order to consummate their relationship. Although later the wife almost gets caught, ultimately her husband never learns that his wife has lied in anyone's "arms all night" (Chaucer, 165) that weren't his and the merchant is seen as a blind fool. The relationships in this tale are all defined, at least in part, in terms of finances:

Essentially, Geoffrey Chaucer's belief that marriage is an institution, which cannot be upheld, is proven by his attitude in his book The Canterbury Tales. The plot summaries of the Miller's Tale, the Merchant's Tale, the Shipman's Tale, and the Wife of Bath's Prologue are all stories about the domination that exists within marriage. Chaucer's scornful and ridiculing descriptions of these incidents show his disdain for the institution of marriage.

The Wife of Bath's Prologue is the most apparent example of Chaucer's contempt for the institution of marriage. Through the Wife of Bath, Chaucer shows how one person, mainly the female, has the ultimate control in a relationship. The Wife maintains that "wives should rule their husbands, and she enforces this doctrine by an account of her own life"(Kittredge, 11). The Wife is one of Chaucer's most powerful characters and she "stood forth as an opponent of the orthodox view of subordination in marriage, as the upholder of an heretical doctrine, and as the exultant practicer of what she preached"(Kittredge, 17). The Wife is very open and willing to share her own personal experience and expertise with the rest of the Pilgrims. In her prologue she tells about the relationships she had with her five husbands. She asks an interesting question, "What kind of marriage does one want?"(Howard, 430). Her first three husbands were "good" and "rich and old"(Chaucer, 263). They served mainly as providers of material goods and sexual needs. In return she would let them do as they wished with her, in a sexual context. There was no true emotional bond between them. She had total and complete domination over the thr

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