Canterbury Tales - Comparison of the Miller's Tale and the Knight's Tale

Throughout the Canterbury Tales, various characters are introduced and tell a tale, each of which tells a different story. All of the tales are unique and address different issues. “The Miller’s Tale” is the second of the many stories and varies from all of the rest. As seen from the “General Prologue,” Chaucer clearly depicts the Miller as a crude, slobbish man who will say anything. This reputation is held true as the Miller drunkenly tells a story full of adultery and bickering. Despite the scandalous nature of “The Miller’s Tale,” the story also displays some of Chaucer’s prominent beliefs. As “The Miller’s Prologue” and “The Miller’s Tale” are told, it becomes evident that Chaucer is challenging the common roles and behaviors of women, and he is also questioning the effectiveness of social class.

Adapting to someone’s piece of art like this is like taking a craft, and altering it or to build off it to produce a new piece of art. Sometimes adaptation mimics the original piece. Other times the resemblance is so slight that it can be considered completely stray from the plot and theme.

In Chaucer's Canterbury Tales a storytelling competition is proposed by the Host. In his mind, it was only proper for the Knight to tell his story first. The sneaky Host rigged the drawing of straws and the Knight won the honor of going first. He told a Roman Epic of loyalty and love, set in classical antiquity that portrayed his gallant manner and elevated social class. The Miller's Tale, a parody of the Knight's Tale, came next. The Miller's Tale was more contemporary and left out many of the ideals that were displayed by the characters in the Knight's Tale. This fabliau told by the Miller seemed to debase the Knight's Tale and also to debase the Knight himself.

Love, to both the Miller and the Reeve, is frequently associated with beauty, lust, and sexual intercourse. Their vision of love is consistent in both stories; indicating that they care mostly about the women’s physical appearances. This can be easily seen in the stories by the way that the women are described and portrayed. Neither of Chaucer’s story tellers offer much insight into the women’s intelligence or mental characteristics. In “The Miller’s Tale,” the Miller writes, “Fair was this yonge wyf, and therwithal as any wesele hir body gent and small” (line 3233), and likewise in “The Reeve’s Tale” when the Reeve notes, “With buttokes brode and brestes rounde and hye” (line 3975). The understandings of love to both the Miller and the Reeve resemble each other in how it is just something that is pleasing to the eyes and the body.

“Oh the Irony” “Use of Satire in the Canterbury Tales” Geoffrey Chaucer is known as the Father of English literature, and is considered the greatest English poet of the Middle Ages. According to Biography.com, “The Canterbury Tales is by far Chaucer’s best known and most acclaimed work. “Out of the twenty-nine characters, I chose the Wife of Baths Tale, and the Pardoners Prologue, plus Tale, along with the broad selection of the General Prologue. The Canterbury Tales challenges the two institutes of the time, the Church, and the patriarchy using satire.

Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales was originally a frame story including thirty people, later to become thirty-one. Does filthy reading make a great tale? A morally sound story is one that is clean, has an easily discovered moral and a moral that teaches a good lesson. The Miller’s Tale is quite a tale to tell, this tale does lack of being morally sound, it is entertaining and it fits The Host’s personality.

In the medieval period that is described by Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, chivalry was perhaps the most recognized quality of a true Christian gentleman. This quality is explored in Chaucer's two characters of the warrior class, the Knight and the Squire. The Squire is in fact the son of the Knight; both ride gallantly and have the air of true gentleman warriors. However, the two are very dissimilar despite their appearances. The Knight possesses the true qualities of chivalry, devotion to service, constancy in humility, and honesty. The Squire possesses none of these qualities truly, instead his demeanor is a shell that encloses a less

The Canterbury Tales begin with The Knight’s Tale; which chronicles the tragic love triangle of Palamon, Arcite and Emilye. The following tale, which is told by the Miller, is also a love triangle, and is in many ways similar to the Knight’s tale. However, the Miller’s tale sharply contrasts the Knight’s, almost parodying it. The Knight’s tale is a tragic of nobility, heritage and focuses heavily on mythology and astrology, whereas The Miller’s tale is a comedy, focusing on the common-man and his less civilized, and bawdy lifestyle. The two stories mirror one another in many ways, but are presented from completely different sides of the spectrum. When the two tales are looked at closely, it doesn’t seem to be a coincidence that they occur

In “The Miller’s Tale”, the poet Chaucer depicts the tale of a “hende” man and his attempt to tempt the “primerole” Alisoun to commit adultery and therefore render her husband, John a “cokewold”. The Miller’s Tale is just one story amongst a collection of greater works known collectively as “The Canterbury Tales”. The placing of this tale is significant becomes it comes directly after the Knight’s Tale revolving around nobility and chivalry and forms a direct contrast due to the fact it is bawdy, lewd and highly inappropriate. The tale is a fabliau, a versified short story designed to make you laugh; concerned usually with sexual or excretory functions. The plot often involves members of the clergy, and is usually in the form of a

The Canterbury Tales are a collection of stories written by Geoffrey Chaucer that were originally told by a group of thirty people traveling to Canterbury, England. The group of people are telling these stories in order to make their trip to Canterbury entertaining, and to win a dinner paid in full by the rest of the group. Two of the best stories told out of the group are the “Nun’s Priest’s Tale” and the “Wife of Bath’s Tale.” The “Nun’s Priest’s Tale” is a story told about a chicken who has a dream of a fox attacking him, and his dream eventually comes true. The “Wife of Bath’s Tale,” however, is about a knight who is forced to go on a quest to figure out what women truly want, and discovers what they truly want in the end after being told

The story focuses around Allison, the wife of the carpenter who indulges in adulterous acts outside of her marriage. I believe Chaucer honed in on her beauty and sexually desirable appearance to pave the way for her to become the butt of the humor in the story. Rather than showcasing her beauty as a positive, he’s trying to show the negative aspect of her beauty that was used to attract another suitor and become the adulterous young woman that is made fun of at the end of the story.

“The Miller’s Tale” a short narrative by Geoffrey Chaucer deals with appearance. His usage of numerous expressions allows the readers to paint their imagination to determine the events in the story. Chaucer describes Alison in way of nature. She is a sensual playful youth, who is too young for marriage thus, playing a carefree role which causes an inappropriate reaction towards men. Although her actions were unjust, she is praised by her bodily formation, her manners, and her gestures to sexually get what she desires.

“The millers Tale, is a tale of humor that involves four characters who all search for love in the wrong placer and learn form their mistakes. The tale begins at the house of the carpenter John who is an aged man. Who marries a young girl named Alison who is only eighteen-years old. Chaucer intentionally does this to show that the age difference is a power to be reckoned with. Chaucer himself describes the contrast of age when he says, “She was a girl of eighteen years of age. Jealous he was and kept her in a cage, for he was old and she was wild an young; he thought himself quiet likely to be stung.” Chaucer perfectly describes the youth and its effect upon the character. The other character Nicholas the Galland, is described by Chaucer as, “This lad was know as Nicholas the Galland, and making love in secret was his talent, for he was very close and sly, and took advantage of his meek and girlish look.” Chaucer her foreshadows the relation ship between the two young characters by describing their flaws such as youth and beauty in Alison and Slyness in Nicholas. The other character Absolon is also a young ambitious character who wants to get Alison at any cost an is described by Chaucer as, “Absalon was a

Geoffrey Chaucer makes an interesting case in The Miller's Tale. He makes readers wonder if all the characters got what they deserved. Did John deserve to break both his arms and lose his wife? Did Nicholas deserve to get a blisstered bum? Did Absolon deserve to be farted on? He uses humor and lust to make a mockery of The Knight's Tale told before The Miller's Tale. A noble tale followed by a vulgar tale.

Still, as we perfectly understand, social realities, beliefs, values, and tastes change and something in The Canterbury Tales have probably got outdated since the 14th century. Due to this reason, I decided to modernize “The Knight’s Tale” for my final assignment.