Contained in the document are key points of context relevant to Chaucer’s ‘‘The Merchant’s Tale’’ focused around the following key points: Power - socio-political context Gender Marriage Christianity Literary context Biography. The research is generally drawn from resources such as; *‘The Cambridge Companion to Chaucer’, The British library, JSTOR, Gail Ashton’s guide to Chaucer and the Casebook interpretation of The Canterbury Tales. The way that I have organised the information, gives clear points and direction as to how it could be applied to the text thus satisfying the top band of the mark scheme where context must have a symbiotic function, furthering literary analysis etc.