Pregnant Desire: Eyes and Appetites in the Merchant’s Tale

This article examines the scene in Chaucer’s Merchant’s Tale in which May declares both that she is pregnant and that she suffers from a pregnancy-induced hunger for pears that must be satiated to preserve her life. Contextualizing Chaucer’s text within medieval scientific discourses on pica (the medical term for often deviant pregnancy cravings), conception, and the physiological stimulation of desire, the article argues that the scene allows Chaucer to complicate more traditional narratives of human culpability and sinfulness in regards to the body’s lusts.