The True Face of Lowbrow Humor Essay

Chaucer’s rendition of poetic justice entwines each singular case into a comedic and captivating tale. Interestingly, the young student Nicholas’ flaws facilitate the impact poetic justice has on the other major characters. Every character’s respective retribution for their moral flaws affects what is most important to them. Nicholas loses both his sexual and intellectual prospects; John’s marriage becomes strained and he loses what credibility he had; Absolon is forced to realize that he is not the person he perceives himself to be; and Alisoun loses her freedom. “The Miller’s Tale” enforces the idea that comedic poetic justice relies on moral ambiguity as well as character’s straying from their stereotypical

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

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.

When Nicolas, the young devious student began living with the two, it was only a matter of time before infidelity occurred. The double entendre is used to create a meaning of innocence at the same time as promiscuity. Chaucer goes into tremendous detail in regard to Alison her beauty and sexuality. "A girdle wore she, barred and striped, of silk. An apron, too, as white as morning milk About her loins, and full of many a gore;" (Lines 127-129). The reader is imagining this beautiful bodied woman until he clues them in. "Fair was this youthful wife, and therewithal, as weasels was her body slim and small." (Lines 125-126). It becomes very clear to the reader that not only is Alison very slim but slim as a weasel. A weasel is considered sneaky and devious. Chaucer lets the reader know that Alison is not to be viewed ethical.

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,

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

accurately depict the happenings of the story as a whole (102). Each of these lines from “The Miller’s

This passage (lines 678-702) of Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale describes Absolon’s revenge against Alison and Nicholas. At line 678 he has procured a hot iron cultour which he takes to Alison’s window. There, he proceeds in an attempt to lure her out with the promise of a gold ring in exchange for a kiss. Nicholas, hearing this from Alison’s room, decides to make the joke better by putting his behind out the window and farting in Absolon’s face, to which Absolon responds by striking him with the hot iron.

In “The Miller’s Tale”, the poet Chaucer depicts the tale of a “hende” man and his attempt to tempt the “primerole” Alisoun to commit adultery and therefore render her husband, John a “cokewold”. The Miller’s Tale is just one story amongst a collection of greater works known collectively as “The Canterbury Tales”. The placing of this tale is significant becomes it comes directly after the Knight’s Tale revolving around nobility and chivalry and forms a direct contrast due to the fact it is bawdy, lewd and highly inappropriate. The tale is a fabliau, a versified short story designed to make you laugh; concerned usually with sexual or excretory functions. The plot often involves members of the clergy, and is usually in the form of a

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

In Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales, he portrays woman as having an evil and looked down upon quality that they use to tempt and harm men, especially in “The Merchant’s Tale”, “The Clerk’s Tale”, and “The Wife of Bath”. In Chaucer’s “The Merchant’s Tale”, women are viewed as lacking in being honest and need people to do things for her. For example, January, whom is a wealthy knight, decides to he wants to marry a lady.

Chaucer’s description of the Miller as deceitful and thieving through his appearance and actions criticizes the upper-class’ tendency to underestimate the ability of the lower-class. The upper class is so consumed with maintaining their image of affluence and looking down on the lower-class, they fail to recognize that peasants can learn to imitate their habits of corruption that lead to immense wealth. The Miller is depicted as a well-built, muscular man who wears “a whit cote and a blew hood” and has a red beard “as any sowe or fox” that would steal from his customers by selling his grain for three times its worth, “yit he hadde a thombe of gold”(554,565-566). The Miller

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.

When Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, he had certain morals in mind. Chaucer usually dealt with one of the seven ?deadly? sins as well. The humorous Miller?s Tale is no exception. The Story is about a carpenter who marries a young beautiful woman who is much younger than him. The moral of the story is revealed in the second paragraph, when Chaucer, through the voice of the miller, notes of the carpenter, ?Being ignorant, he did not know of Cato?s advice that a man should marry a woman similar to him?. He goes on to say, ?Men should wed their contemporaries, for youth and age are often at odds?. Through his tale, Chaucer will demonstrate the truth in this moral. The carpenter is

The Wife of Bath is probably the most memorable pilgrim of Geoffrey Chaucer. In the General Prologue we can learn about Alison’s (The Wife) appearance, character and life. She is depicted as a little garish and largish woman with gap teeth. She has a cheerful and vigorous personality, and had numerous