The Modern and Medieval Merchant's Tale"The Prologue and the Merchant's Tale" is primarily about May's infidelity while married to Januarie. Infidelity is undoubtedly a popular topic of discussion in modern times and is often the subject of magazine or television stories. While the concern with marriage and the status of men and women within that relationship keeps the story applicable to audiences even more than 600 years later, there are many elements of the Prologue and Tale that root them in a medieval context. The reasons for getting married and the opinions cited show the attitudes of the medieval period as well as references to mythological figures such as "Ymeneus, that god of marriage". Symbolizing how the medieval and modern aspects of the tale can easily be combined is the story of Pluto and Proserpina. Although Pluto captures his wife, she is able to spend much of the year away from Hades. This is symbolic of the greater freedom that many women can enjoy in the modern world. This modern bond is opposed to the relationship between Januarie and May, which seems to have followed the medieval tradition to a greater extent with regards to the actual marriage and the mercantile nature in which it is celebrated. Rather than the freedom for Proserpina agreed between her and Pluto, Januarie desires a "hot wex" wife he can control, ultimately forcing May to cheat on him. Januarie's reasons for marrying are seen as improper in both medieval and modern contexts. He wants to get married simply because he is old and society seems to say he should. There is no consideration for love, only lust, as he states: “I wol noon oold wyf han in no manere.” A medieval audience would have been aware that the emphasis on carnal pleasure displeased God, whereas this would have been less of a problem for a modern audience. Since marriage was considered by medieval audiences to be the embodiment of Christ's devotion to the Church, the theme of infidelity would have been evident to modern audiences, but without the ironic details evident to earlier audiences. In addition to this, the mere fact that Januarie's friends are ready to find "who [he] can be hastily married to", rather than letting Januarie search himself, roots the tale in a medieval context as an idea of ​​the genre is almost inconceivable in the year 2000.