The central episode of the Merchant's Tale is like a fabliau, though of a very unusual sort: It is cast in the high style, and some of the scenes (the marriage feast, for example) are among Chaucer's most elaborate displays of rhetorical art.

Though several of the tales are sexually explicit by modern standards, this one is especially so. It could have arrived in Europe through the One Thousand and One Nights, or perhaps the version in book VI of the Masnavi by Rumi. The tale is found in Persia in the Bahar Danush, in which the husband climbs a date tree instead of a pear tree. The tale also shows the influence of Boccaccio ( Decameron: 7th day, 9th tale ), Deschamps' Le Miroir de Mariage, Roman de la Rose by Guillaume de Lorris (translated into English by Chaucer), Andreas Capellanus, Statius, and Cato. In it Chaucer subtly mocks antifeminist literature like that of Theophrastus ('Theofraste').

Anti-feminist writing pervaded the whole of medieval society – often quoted were St Jerome “The man who does not quarrel is a bachelor” and THEOPHRASTUS Golden Book of Marriage (found in St Jerome’s writing) “A wise man … must not take a wife.” He refers to a wife as a “burden” and that “the misery of having an ugly wife is less than the burden of keeping watch on a beautiful one.' The Merchant's Tale' ( Middle English: The Marchantes Tale) is one of Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

Women were often considered the embodiment, or ultimate symbol and reminder of earthly sin: like sin itself, they were sources of temptation but they were dangerous, repugnant when seen clearly, and always in need of control, denial, and suppression.

In Anti-feminist writing women have weaker characters than men, they are seen to be: Excessively emotional and deficient in reason BUT wily and clever in a devious, quick-witted way Excessively sexual and bodily BUT physically weak and passive Lacking in self-control unable to control speech, a “leaky vessel” Resentful and prone to use manipulation and nagging to get their way because they have no recourse to direct means of power Vain, greedy, and materialistic.

The merchant's prologue and tale