What do Vanity Fair, The Scarlet Letter, Francesca (Inferno Canto 5) and Grover Cleveland have in common with The Merchant's Tale?
Well, Grover Cleveland married Frances Folsom at the age of 54. His bride was 21.
Francesca was married to a much older man and died in the arms of his brother, Paolo, who was much closer to her age.
Hester Prynne married Roger Chillingworth when she was 16 and he was an aged scholar and alchemist. She truly loved the young minister, Arthur Dimmesdale (although for the life of me I could never see why).
And Rebecca Sharp had several lovers, but one of the early ones was a very old man (with money).
The May-December romance (or May/January marriage) is a convention, but Dante, for one, asked the question, "Is it a sin to force such a marriage on a young girl?" In such a marriage the older husband is certainly tempting fate as well as his young wife to adultery with someone closer to her own age. Is it a sin against nature for a young, pretty and nubile female (like May) to be married to a hoary, wrinkly, perhaps toothless old man?
The Clevelands were happy-- and Frances wanted the marriage. Perhaps it is just arranged or forced marriages that are wrong. I am not a fan of adultery, but I found myself feeling sorry for May throughout the tale. And everything January was afraid of happened. His reasons for marriage were selfish all along- and he treated his wife as an object. It is hard to sympathize with him.
PS Frances's father's name was Oscar-- and he was Cleveland's best friend. They were the original Oscar and Grover.
You make an interesting point here. I believe that the theme is that marriages of people separated by many years typically do not work out well. There appears to be more issues under the surface that maybe we can pick up on after reading the rest of the marriage tales.
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