Compare And Contrast The Miller's Tale

“I believe that the common man is as apt a subject for tragedy in its highest sense as kings were” ( Tragedy and the Common Man). Arthur Miller follows his Millerian conventions of tragedy in the writing of The Crucible. Often literature uses tragedy to display a depressing theme represented by the tragic hero.

The Miller's Tale" is the story of a carpenter, his lovely wife, and the two clerks (students) who are eager to get her into bed. The carpenter, John, lives in Oxford with his much younger wife, Alisoun, who is something of a local beauty. To make a bit of extra money, John rents out a room in his house to a poor but clever scholar named Nicholas, who has taken a liking to Alisoun. Another scholar in the town, Absolon the parish clerk, also has his eye on Alisoun.

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.

Consistently dishonest to his customers, The Miller is a great example of this kind of corruption. The main job of The Miller is to sell grain to families, thus providing them with food. The moral expectation of this job seems high, as families who must pay for grain are of a lower class. As a result, The Miller is most likely seen as a ‘savior’ to many people of the lower class. Chaucer, at first, supports this saying, “His mighty mouth was like a furnace door. / A wrangler and buffoon, he had a store / Of tavern stories, filthy in the main” (Chaucer 575-577). In other words, The Miller seems to be an overall well-rounded, humorous guy. So much so, that no one has any reason to think that he might be cheating them out of their money. Yet, in the very next line, Chaucer describes him in a much different way: “His was a master-hand at stealing grain. / He felt it with his thumb and thus he knew / Its quality and took three times his due” (“The Miller” 578-580). Obviously, The Miller is receiving more money than he actually deserves because he places his thumb on the scale, making the grain weigh more. Although no one is aware, The Miller constantly takes advantage of his clients by making them pay more than their fair share. Although he does not appear corrupt to most, The Miller is dishonest and cheats many people who are involved in his trade.

There is no question that contradictory values make up a major component of The Canterbury Tales. Fate vs. Fortuna, knowledge vs. experience and love vs. hate all embody Chaucer's famous work. These contrasting themes are an integral part of the complexity and sophistication of the book, as they provide for an ironic dichotomy to the creative plot development and undermine the superficial assumptions that might be made. The combination of completely contradictory motifs leads to the unusual stories and outcomes that come to play out in the tales. And these outcomes draw focus on the larger universal issues that in many cases transcend the boundaries of vernacular periods to all of

The moral of the tale is positive, but right after he proves his hypocrisy when he tries to sell and “grant pardons” that are fraudulent (PT340). Chaucer uses “The Pardoner’s Tale”, as well as “The Miller’s Tale”, to exemplify the character’s immoral personalities. “The Miller’s Tale” reflects the Miller’s uncivilized behavior. The Miller is intoxicated while telling his tale and states that if he says anything offensive to “hold me free from blame”(MP88). His tale is replete with immoral actions, including adultery and elaborate lies.

Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales are some of the most widely read and anthologized pieces of medieval poetry. These tales are generally celebrated and enjoyed because of the author’s use of wit and satire, as Chaucer often uses word play and characterization to deliver hard-hitting, yet entertaining truths about his time period. This is the case in “The Miller’s Tale,” which portrays the story of a carpenter with an adulterous wife and the shenanigans that take place during and after one of her affairs. After closely examining “Absalom’s Revenge,” the last section of this tale, it is clear to see that Chaucer uses language, puns, and other writing techniques to provide a commentary on the lewdness of some who lived during the Middle Ages.

At first glance these two tales seem an incongruous pairing. The Knight's Tale is told by an eminent person, is an historical romance which barely escapes a tragic ending, and its themes are universal: the relationship of individuals to providence, fortune and free will. The Miller's Tale is told by a drunken "cherl" (MT 3182), is a farcical fabliau, and has "a plot, not themes"4. And yet, in my opinion, there is much to be gained by reading the Miller's Tale with the themes and

cheats Alan and John out of a fair amount of grain, and the scene  where

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

On the pilgrimage to Canterbury, the Knight started off with his romantic story about two lovesick men fighting over a lady. Chaucer chose to follow this with the “Miller’s Tale” that is full of dirty humor. The Miller is drunk so he is able to get away with the dirty puns and jokes he tells. The “Miller’s Tale” is an example of a fabliau, a short humorous narrative. Fabliaux include sex, adultery, drinking, swearing, farting, and anything that would create a stark contrast between what would take place amongst courtly love in a royal court and what went on between peasants in more rural areas. Even though fabliaux talked about the lower class, they were enjoyed by the aristocrats. Thus the Miller is so eager to tell his tale right after the

The Canterbury Tales is a story that incorporates a multitude of stories told by a multitude of characters. Written by Geoffrey Chaucer, he devises a novel in which each character has to narrate a total of four stories as part of a competition; on their way to visit Saint Thomas Becket, the characters would tell two stories going and two stories returning from the journey. The perspective changes through each story, and each story is introduced by a general, opening, third person prologue. Though many of the characters got to share some ideas, Chaucer unfortunately passed away before his story’s entirety. As a result, a winner was never officially clarified. Needless to say, it is evident that the clear winner would be the Miller’s Tale.

Such an intense reaction to the Miller’s tale—in which someone of the Reeve’s vocation is bested by a younger, more virile man—seems based upon the Reeve’s sudden need to defend his manhood against another man’s slander. By telling a story in which a carpenter is bested by another man sexually, the Miller has wounded the pride of the Reeve, who now must display a story in which a miller is dominated by another man to defend his masculinity. As Angela Jane Weisl explains in “‘Quiting’ Eve:Violence Against Women in the Canterbury Tales”, the need to reclaim his ego informs the Reeve’s desire to “become[] powerful and thus, violent, masculine” through his warning to the Miller that he might endure corporeal harm (123). By having the Reeve devise to reassert dominance over the Pilgrim Miller in such violent ways before the tale has even begun, Chaucer prefaces the clerk to share the same anxiety over requiting the tale’s miller through sexual

By simple definition, a miller is someone who keeps a mill whether it is corn or small grains. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer defines a miller as a member of the degraded lower class, with questionable morals and low manner who is a dealer in grain. Chaucer takes the literal definition of a character and expands it using stereotypical inferences from the medieval time period. In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer utilizes various literary techniques including symbolism, hyperbole, and juxtaposition to help characterize pilgrims such as the Miller. The application of these devices helps to develop the collection as a whole by defining and contradicting stereotypes within society.

The Miller's Fabliau The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, has been well documented in records from the middle english period. A prominent reason for its relevance is the diversity in its Genres story structures. Some stories are long and more sophisticated than others such as the Knight's tale, and some more are short and humorous such as the Miller’s tale. The Knight’s tale would be under romance and the Miller’s would be under fabliaux. Fabliaux stories are known for their humor and deception aswell as sexaul indications.