Summary Of 'The Canterbury Tales' By Geoffrey Chaucer

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.

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

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 last character Chaucer describes in the feudal class is the Miller, a large and imposing man. The physical description of him given includes, "His beard, like any sow or fox, was red…"(138). The color red suggests that the Miller may be a Scotsman, the British and Scottish historically disliked each other, perhaps extending to Chaucer. Furthermore, Chaucer stated that the Miller 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…" (138). Clearly, the Miller is portrayed as a thief who takes what he wants and is not above violence to achieve his goals. While everyone but the Miller are admired in the feudal class, the people in the merchant class are both admired and criticized leaving Chaucer’s feeling to be neutral to the merchant class.

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a story of a contest who can tell the best tale. The rules of the contest were as follows: Each pilgrim would tell four tales for the trip to Canterbury, two on the journey there and two on the way back.. The tales will be judged by the Host for it’s entertainment and moral lessons. The winner of the contest will enjoy a meal paid for by the remaining pilgrims at the Host's Inn. “The Miller’s Tale” had fulfilled the criteria to win the contest. It was a shorter story, but it was entertaining and had a few lessons that can be learned from hearing or reading it. This story is significant because it does a great job of pointing out of some of the problems in the church during that time as well as how the morals of some people were not strong as well.

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.

The stereotypes that Chaucer presents are easy to see, however the moral of the miller’s tale is a bit more hidden. As a whole the tale reflects the idea that one should not marry such a young and pretty women. It is an idea that Chaucer continually pursues throughout the book and further explains during the Tale of the Wife of Bath.

The Miller's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer is a mirror of medieval society particularly in the way it depicts the relationships between men and women as well as giving a realistic portrait of working class people during the middle ages. Alison, the main character illustrates how a woman was able to use her sex through her actions of deceit to many characters. Popular belief holds that courtly love was prevalent during the medieval period; however The Miller's Tale provides a more realistic look into sexual relationships through its use of infidelity and sexual humor. Chaucer's characters are typical middle class workers rather than elite nobility. In addition, many of the characters seem heartless and corrupt. Alison's character is far away

“The Miller’s Tale,” part of Geoffrey Chaucer’s larger work, “The Canterbury Tales,” is a bawdy and irreverent story about lust, deception, and consequences. Chaucer’s work centers around four main characters: John is a dimwitted carpenter, Alison is John’s young and wife, Nicholas is a scholar who resides in John’s household, and Absolon is a priest’s assistant with a romantic fixation on Alison. Throughout the tale, deceptive plots and questionable decisions abound, and no one is completely innocent of wrongdoing. Of course, like with most any other story involving lies and selfish pursuits, every character gets an informal education on natural consequences. It is worth noting that Nicholas is the only character in the story with any

Throughout his The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer makes it his goal to expose the true nature of each of his characters through the descriptions given by the narrator and reflected in the tale told by each character. At the end of the Miller’s Tale, almost all of the characters are guilty of some wrongdoing and physically harmed in some manner. The unfortunate chain of events at the story’s conclusion and the Miller’s extreme amusement in response to the story enable the reader to become privy to the Miller’s unique agenda. A superficial possibility, and easily the most reflective of the Miller’s personality, is a simple desire to find and provide amusement in a vulgar tale with graphic imagery and inappropriate actions by the characters. Another

In the Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, a group of pilgrims participate in a storytelling competition on their journey to a holy shrine in Canterbury. The first two pilgrims to tell a story are the noble Knight and the drunken Miller. The characters in their stories suffer because of their blindness for love or from feeling lovesick in general as seen in The Knight’s Tale of medieval romance and The Miller’s Tale, which is a fabliau mockery of love. The Miller tell a story, which was not meant to convey medieval romance but rather to twist the ideals of traditional courtly love and poke fun at the elements of courtly love. Courtly love requires a story with characters who are less crude, blunt and sensual, and instead conform

Following the fall of the great Roman Empire a new age was born, the age of knights in shining amour and the great kings in stone castles. Yet, it was also a chaotic time, War and plague was a disease upon Europe. Countries fought for land, resources, and above all, the attention of God. The world was young and so was the English Language. Few writers wrote in English, the language of the commoners, as French and Latin was the Language of the powerful élite. Yet one writer dared to speak against the feudal society of which he was born into. Geoffrey Chaucer served most of his life in the employment of the crown, as both a soldier and a clerk. Yet through all of these titles, Chaucer would be forever immortalized as Geoffrey Chaucer the

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

       The characters introduced in the General Prologue of The Canterbury Tales each represent a stereotype of a kind of person that Chaucer would have been familiar with in 14th Century England. Each character is unique, yet embodies many physical and behavioral traits that would have been common for someone in their profession. In preparing the reader for the tales, Chaucer first sets the mood by providing an overall idea of the type of character who is telling the tale, then allows that character to introduce themselves through a personal prologue and finally, the pilgrim tells their tale. Through providing the reader with insight about the physical and personal traits of

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