Summary Of The Canterbury Tales And Miller's Tale

In the late 1300s Geoffrey Chaucer began wrote The Canterbury Tales, a story which follows the religious journey of twenty-nine people, who represent many aspects of Medieval society, to the Canterbury Cathedral in southeast England. While on the pilgrimage the host of the tavern, where all the pilgrims meet, suggests that the pilgrims each tell a story for the group’s entertainment. Chaucer intended for all the voyagers to tell two stories, but he unfortunately died before he could finish the book and only got to write one story apiece. However, the goal of the storytelling contest is to tell the most moral story possible, and the one who wins receives a free meal, which the rest of the pilgrims will pay for. Although some of the other stories have good moral messages, “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” are on different ends of the moral spectrum. “The Pardoner’s Tale” focuses on a pardoner who preaches against greed. While “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” exemplifies what all women want in their relationships: power. Although both “The Pardoner’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” demonstrate the value of the opinion of elders, the stories differ in their moral values and their storyteller’s values.

To begin his tale, the Miller interjects after the Knight, interrupting the Monk. The Miller then apologizes in advance for what he is about to say; he is very drunk and may say some inappropriate things. After his short prologue, the Miller tells the story of a wild love affair between a woman named Alisoun and three men pining after her. The three men, Alisoun’s carpenter husband named John, a scholar name Nicholas, and a parish clerk called Absolon all take an almost obsessive interest in this eighteen-year-old woman. Although Alisoun is married to the carpenter, she quickly becomes secretly devoted to Nicholas after a short

The narrator even tells the reader these words before allowing the Miller to proceed with his story, “ and eek men shall not make ernest of game(lines 78).”

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.

Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales became one of the first ever works that began to approach the standards of modern literature. It was probably one of the first books to offer the readers entertainment, and not just another set of boring morals. However, the morals, cleverly disguised, are present in almost every story. Besides, the book offers the descriptions of the most common aspects of the human nature. The books points out both the good and the bad qualities of the people, however, the most obvious descriptions are those of the sinful flaws of humans, such as greed and lust.

In "The Prologue" of The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer has some religious characters who break the vows they pledge for, to get a place in the Church. Many characters in the story seem to have an awkward characteristic that the writer did not notice. Why do the religious characters break the vow? How do they break it? For example, the monk was a primary part of the church, but as you keep reading, the characters start to change in ways you could never imagine. Some character do not interact with each other depending upon their social class level. The vows that the religious characters break are the Vow of Poverty, the Vow of Chastity, the Vow of Obedience, and the Vow of Stability.

The Miller's Tale is the story of a carpenter, his lovely wife, and the two younger gentlemen who are in love with the carpenter’s wife. The carpenter, John, is married to a much younger woman, Alison, who is considered a local beauty. To make a bit of extra money, John rents out a room in his house to a poor but clever cleric named Nicholas, who has taken a liking to Alison. The other man interested in Alison is a clerk named Absalon. Nicholas uses his astrological studies to convince John to prepare for a storm so he and Alison could have the night alone. With Nicholas and Alison alone, Absalon tries to get Alison to like him by singing to her but she does not find him attractive.

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.

In the prologue it talks about how The Host was like I want someone who is gonna have a nice tale to go next and the Miller who is always drunk said that he would go and The Host said no, so the Miller offered to leave. The Host being the nice guy that he is, said he could go so he wouldn’t leave. In the Knights tale he tells the story of a king named Theseus who

In The Canterbury Tales the group of pilgrims are traveling together and to make the trip more enjoyable, the Host suggests that the pilgrims each take turns sharing stories, two a piece on the way there and two on the way back. In addition, they turned the storytelling into a competition, whoever tells the story that is the worst must buy dinner among other things. The winner will be judged by the moral education and entertainment value of the stories. Between “The Knight’s Tale” and “The Pardoner’s Tale”, “The Pardoner’s Tale” meets the winning criteria the best. “The Pardoner’s Tale” is more entertaining as well as has a better moral education, despite being told by the least entertaining and moral man of the pilgrims.

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

Noted earlier, the Miller’s tale is enjoyable due to its qualities of both entertainment and the idea of learning a lesson. In the prologue, the miller is defined as a filterless, rowdy drunk who speaks whatever comes to his mind. Because of this, he is portrayed as very vulgar and a nuisance since he easily offends others. The Reeve introduces the Miller at the beginning of the story as a drunk, impulsive, bully as he

Despite this unflattering introduction, however, the Miller cannot be considered a loathsome person because his purpose is to provide comic relief. The Miller's appearance after the more solemn Knight creates a contrast in mood and provides the reader with a more relaxed feeling going into the remainder of the tales.

The Canterbury Tales, a masterpiece of English Literature, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, is a collection, with frequent dramatic links, of 24 tales told to pass the time during a spring pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Thomas a Becket in Canterbury. The General Prologue introduces the pilgrims, 29 "sondry folk" gathered at the Tabard Inn in Southwark (outside of London). Chaucer decides to join them, taking some time to describe each pilgrim.

The woman was fair skinned and her body was slim. She wore a stripped silken