"Noon oother lyf," seyde he, "is worth a bene,
For wedlok is so esy and so clene,
That in this world it is a paradys.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Merchant’s Tale. There is no point to life without marriage, January believes. In a classic case of self-deception he views wedlock as so easy and pure and believes that it is a paradise on earth – a Garden of Eden. He is a foolish old man mentally blind to the reality of marriage. The simplistic way that he perceives it is far from the truth.