Murder In 'Absolon From The Miller's Tale'

Let’s examine the short story of “Killings” by Andre Dubus. The story begins on a warm August day with the burial of Matt and Ruth Fowler’s youngest son Frank. Frank was only twenty-one: “twenty-one years, eight months, and four days” (Dubus, “Killings” 107). Attending the funeral were Matt, his wife Ruth, their eldest son Steve, his wife, their middle daughter Cathleen and her husband. Frank was buried in a cemetery on a hill in Massachusetts overlooking the Merrimack. Across from the cemetery is an “apple orchard with symmetrically planted trees going up a hill” (107), a symbol of how nice and serene the cemetery actually is and the peace Frank now has. Matt’s family is extremely distraught over the murder of their youngest

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.

Throughout this course, we have learned different approaches and techniques regarding therapy and counseling. More so, multiple of these techniques are used to develop a plan for the benefit of the patient. Love’s Executioner (1989), written by Irvin D. Yalom, was a documentation of the relationship and interactions between Thelma and himself. Throughout the treatment, he used a variety of helping skills and approaches to attempt to breakthrough her within six months. Thelma’s reason for coming into therapy was that she was emotionally distressed based on a past experience. She perceived to be hopelessly in love with an old therapist of hers, Matthew. This “love” was more than an emotion felt and since it was not reciprocated, it was merely an obsession of the twenty-seven days she spent with Matthew. Through the course of this interaction, Yalom used a psychoanalytic orientation

After all of the witch trials in 1692 concluded a total of 20 people were hanged all because of people craving attention and personal gain. There are three people depicted in Arthur Miller's The Crucible that are most responsible for this and they are, Abigail Williams, Judge Danforth, and Thomas Putnam. Abigail Williams is mostly responsible for the Salem witch trials because she was the first person to start accusing innocent people of witchcraft. Judge Danforth is responsible because he is not concerned about justice, all he cares about is being correct about the witch trials. Lastly Thomas Putnam is guilty of causing the witch trials because he was able to have people accuse other people

He knew nat Catoun for his wit was rude, that bad man sholde wedde his similitude” (Lines 113-120). Absolon on the other hand just wanted sex, and as much Alisoun despised him he would not stop stalking her. The Miller’s tale is cynical, because love is either misguided or lust and humans often are confused between the two. The author wanted to point that humans must know the difference or else the outcome would most likely be devastating thus leading to one’s own fault. While others might say this theme was not about love, but more about sexual desires, it was not the case. Sexual desires was only part of the theme because sex has always been alined with love in every relationship good or bad. Chaucer want readers to get past the sexual imagery and look at the love theme which incorporated in this story. The love theme represented the trouble behind human minds and how lust can be confused as love.

In "The Miller's Tale," the character of Alison is introduced as the 18-year-old wife of a carpenter who is much older than the woman. The author's description of the young wife seems to suggest that she was so wild, beautiful, and desirable that the old man had a difficult time containing his jealousy.

In Katherine Ramsland’s article “Murder by the Book: The Murder of Karyn Slover,” she tells the story of the mysterious murder of a 23 year old mother who seemed to vanish with no reasoning in central Illinois back in 1996. Ramsland begins by telling how an abandoned car was left on the side of the road with it still running, the headlights on and the driver door still open. Police searched the car and found a drivers license with Karyn Slover’s name on it, yet the car belonged to David Swann. The police reached Swann and told him of Karyn’s disappearance, which he then told the police how she was borrowing the car to pick up her son at the Slover’s household. The author continues on about how Swann filed a missing-persons report

Analysis: “his voice about to break, and his shame great: In the proper place—where my beasts are bedded…God help me, I lusted, and there is a promise in such sweat. But it is a whore's vengeance, and you must see it now.” (Miller 110)

In both “The Miller’s Tale” and “The Reeve’s Tale,” Chaucer uses deception and cunningness as a form of persuasion. In “The Miller’s Tale,” Nicolas utilizes his cunningness to persuade Alison to have an affair with him. As he begins flirting with her,

His wife went to bed also, as light and frisky as any jay, so well had she wet her jolly whistle.” (lines 4153-4155) Upon their first meeting, the Miller pretended to play nice to the clerks by saying, “Then, by my pate, I will be beneath, and see how the mean falls down into the trough; that sail be my amusement. In faith, John, I must be of your class, I am as poor a miller as you.” (lines 4041-4045) Frustrated with this simple yet powerful statement, Alan and John wanted revenge.

“The consolation or solas of the churls’ fabliaux and fables involves a more obvious kind of wish fulfillment or fictive accomplishment of forbidden desires” (Kendrick 1988, p. 116). In The Miller’s Tale, Nicholas is a clerk, who contains a desire towards Alisoun, even though she is a married woman. “Chaucer is not

Farce is the most obvious form of humour in the Miller's Tale, but I think irony is the most important. Chaucer plays off text against text to great ironic effect, both inter and extra-textually. In fact, the carpenter is a perfect ironic antidote to the Miller's advice of the Prologue. We read there that the best way for husbands to escape the humiliation of being cuckolded is that:

When analyzing a character and their actions, perspective is an important element to consider. This coincides with point of view, which gives us further context of a character's actions. In Shakespeare's "Macbeth" and Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart", murder is a common theme in which the protagonists struggle to overcome the guilt they feel. The protagonists inevitably let their guilty consciences overpower them, leading them to their demise. Looking at these texts critically, focusing our attention on the perspectives of the given texts, gives us a comprehensive understanding of the character's actions.

Chaucer introduces a sense of anger and revenge to strengthen the plot finally when Thomas tells the Friar he has a gift for him and lets out a fart louder than a horse. At the end of the tale, Thomas says he has a gift for the Friar. Thomas was annoyed by the Friar and was exceedingly angry at him. Thomas wanted revenge from hearing that too long of a sermon and for the Friars hypocrisy. In the line “To grope around his orifice, right in / The friar's hand the fellow let a fart. / No single horse that's ever drawn a cart / Has ever let a fart with such a sound,” (2147 - 2150) the Summoner uses his anger to creatively create the punishment of the fart on the Friar. This was revenge for the tale that the Friar said about the Summoner and this strengthens the plot of the Summoner’s tale. The Summoner enraged with a fury stronger than a hurricane created a creatively weird tale about revenge and a fart with a strange plot.

Misogyny is not only visible in the Miller’s tale, but also in the Wife of Bath’s tale through the very superficial standards set for women by men. The old woman asks that the knight marries her in return for giving him the answer to the riddle and he reacts in disgust and horror, “‘...to take me as your wife…‘Alas and woe is me!...I am ugly and poor…my damnation! Alas, that any of my birth should ever be so foully disgraced!” (Chaucer, “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” 199-213). The knight is visibly distraught, using words such as “damnation” and “disgraced” when the old woman expresses her wish to marry him. He displays these emotions not because she wants to get married, but because she is ugly and poor. He is worried because an ugly wife will mar his reputation and is a poor reflection of him. This translates to the misogynistic society during the time period where women were seen as property to be shown off, rather than people who deserved respect. The recurring theme of misogyny in these two tales shows that Chaucer does not feel sympathy for the opposite gender, but instead belittles their plight.