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The Miller's Tale Essay

Decent Essays

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer consists of several characters from various social classes. Together, these characters go on a pilgrimage to Canterbury and along the journey they all tell different tales. In order to write this book, Chaucer decided to go on his own pilgrimage and to also observe people in his everyday life in order to make the characters and the book itself realistic. Many authors like Chaucer will take real life experiences and incorporate them into their novels. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses the characters in order to reveal his inner-most opinions of his past. Chaucer’s solicitous portrayal of contrary women in “The Miller’s Tale” can be traced back to his tolerance of the affair between his wife and his best friend. For example, Alison from “The Miller’s Tale” is having an affair with Nicholas and warns him that “My husband is so full of jealousy, unless you watch your step and hold your breath I know for certain it will be my death” (Chaucer 91). This evidence suggests that Alison was aware of her wrong doing and knew she …show more content…

This having been his second and possibly third time visiting Italy, the Italian influence became more apparent in his work after this visit. “”The Knight's Tale” represents Chaucer's second attempt to adapt the material of the Teseida” written by Italian poet, Giovanni Boccaccio (Rossignal). The tale is about two prisoner knights who are fighting for the love of one woman. This tale contains the exact characters and plot of Boccaccio’s Teseida. In other words, Chaucer’s visit to Italy and his enlightenment on Italian poets drew him to incorporate an Italian poet’s work into his very own, The Canterbury Tales, but more specifically “The Knight’s Tale”. Not only did Chaucer use Teseida but the Decameron provided direct parallels for "The Reeve's Tale," "The Clerk's Tale," "The Merchant's Tale," "The Franklin's Tale," and "The Shipman's

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