The True Face of Unethical Humor

The Miller starts off his tale of infidelity by introducing the main characters. First, he introduces John, the carpenter. John, the carpenter, is an old rich man that is insecure about his relationship with his wife. He married a youthful eighteen year old named Alisoun. Alisoun was the most beautiful and attractive girl of her town. Jealously was one of the main problems that the carpenter worried about. Since his wife was attractive, he worried that sh would cheat on him with someone close to her own age. To protect his marriage, John always keep Alisoun within reach and refused to let her wander. As a form of income, John allowed a young, poor scholar named Nicholas to stay at his home. Nicholas is a young, Oxford scholar who spends hours

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.

What is Pornography? When asked some people might say, “I can not define it, but I know it when I see it.” The word “Pornography” comes from the Greek for writing about prostitutes. Many people concluded that the Miller’s tale was merely a pornographic story that surrounded four people. This also depended on one’s view of pornography. The Miller’s tale was told by the Miller who was not stable at the time. The Miller’s tale focused on two men, Nicholas and Absolon whose goal is to establish a relationship with Alisoun, the attractive adolescent wife of an older carpenter named John. Alisoun on one hand used old-fashioned romantic strategies such as dressing up in lavish clothes and singing. Nicholas on the other hand tricked John

“This Miller has done me great mischief, and I will not leave without first finding his daughter” (The Reeve). In the end, the students sleep with the Miller’s wife and daughter, and the Miller ends up beaten and losing many of his possessions, but the story doesn’t justify the students, the stealing, or even the greed itself. Chaucer leaves it up to the readers to make their own conclusions.

In Chaucer’s “Prologue to the Miller’s Tale”, the Miller’s physically disgusting appearance closely matches his grotesque morality of heart. The prologue opens at the closing of the Knight’s tale, as the Host asks the Monk to rival the tale with a noble story of his own. However, the Miller barges in and doesn’t hesitate to belligerently interrupt the conversation by claiming that he has a noble story of his own to share. Despite attempts to silence the Miller, he proceeds to tell his tale, exhibiting a lack of compassion, respect and self-awareness. His inebriation only fuels the fire, as he continues to illustrate recklessness and disrespect by proclaiming, “I am drunk…If I can’t get my words out, put the blame / On Southwark ale,” (Chaucer 28-30). He takes no responsibility for his actions in blaming his hostile state of mind on the alcohol. Following the Knight’s noble tale, the Miller completely shifts the tone by introducing a story about adultery. Not only is the story inappropriate in its nature, but it also directly insults the Reeve, who is a carpenter by trade. “It is a sin and a great foolishness to injure any man by defamation,” (Chaucer 36-37) yet the Miller “refused to hold his tongue for any man,” (Chaucer 59) and fails to consider his hurtful words. The speaker of the poem warns the reader that the story is bawdy and offensive, which is a testament to the Miller’s vulgar nature. Ultimately, the “Prologue to the Miller’s Tale” introduces the Miller as a

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.

"The Miller's Tale," a short story by Geoffrey Chaucer, deals frankly with sexual and bodily subjects. Chaucer is never obscene, he allows the reader to use his imagination to determine what some of the events actually mean. The tale is a "fabliau," which is a short story in verse that deals satiracally and humorously about sexual or monetary deception.

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,

“The Miller’s Tale” is a Fabliau. Chaucer illustrates how a fabliau can be a parody of romance. This kind of medieval literature usually involves someone getting cheated on. Sex in association with women is a major component in Chaucer’s Humorous tale. “The Miller’s Tale” main character Alisoun is the divine, she is the center of courtly love. Joseph D. Parry Analyzes “The Miller’s tale” in his article “Interpreting female agency and responsibility in the Miller's Tale and the Merchant's Tale”. Parry’s explications of Alisoun being solely responsible for John, Nicholas and Absolon’s misfortunes are solid but not completely accurate.

Chaucer stresses this point by using dramatic irony when Absalon thinks he is going to kiss Alison, but in reality he kisses her butt. Alison’s trick was a foolish act, and only uneducated people who do not know any better would do that. The working class was often frowned upon and thought of as crazy because many of the villagers knew they often played tricks on each other and never thought before they acted. Therefore, Chaucer uses dramatic irony in the Pardoner’s Tale and in the Miller’s Tale to comment on the medieval time

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:

The personality of the Miller is described as vulgar and corrupt. The color of his hair symbolizes the lust and trickery in his personality. In the description of the Miller, Chaucer describes the types of jokes the Miller would often tell. As a jester, the Miller would often tell jokes related “...[about] sin and ribaldries” (Chaucer 563). With his red hair similar to the color of fox’s fur, the red foxes symbolizes trickery. Both a fox and the Miller have the natural talent of trickery. He plays tricks on his customers by earning money from “...[stealing] corn and full thrice [charging] his fees” (Chaucer 564). Through his occupation he has total control over the cost of grain. During Chaucer's time, it is hard to set change in social statuses and behavior. Breaking medieval stereotypes, the Miller, a lower class man gains more income easily than an upper class man. Also, the Miller has no reasoning of what is socially acceptable to say. His jokes would offend those who meet with

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a collection of 24 stories written during the Middle Ages. The tales were written with the intent of criticizing the functions of societal standards as well as the beliefs of the Church. “The Miller’s Tale,” one the most popular stories, offers unique insights into the customs and practices of the English middle class during the Middle Ages. The story follows the lives of John, Absolon, and Nicholas, three men who are involved with a beautiful woman named Alisoun. The male characters attempt to win over the heart of the beautiful Alisoun, leading to misfortune and despair. However, this misfortune is not distributed evenly, and the characters, with the purest of intents, end the story far worse off than their immoral counterparts. In “The Miller’s Tale,” Chaucer shows that life favors the characters with an inverted moral compass while ultimately destroying those who are more honorable.

In Geoffrey Chaucer’s novel The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses a series of satirical narratives in order to comment on the hypocrisies and transgressions occurring within the social hierarchy of late 14th century England. While the tales are not based on factual accounts of people from his time, each anecdote can be considered to contain realistic portrayals of the people from Chaucer’s time. Likewise, themes including religion, sin, and gender inequality used to shape each tale attest to the idea that the novel is timeless and universal. Therefore, in tales like “The Miller’s Tale” “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, these ideas come together to comment on the inequalities often found within the larger theme of marriage, which is used to form the characters and their motivations, as well as their inevitable punishments.

While adultery was not as common as simple fornication, it prevailed during the late Middle Ages. Chaucer illustrates this by trivializing adultery when Nicholas gives way to impulse and seduces Alisoun. As their plan to fool the carpenter, John, goes to fruition, “without more words [Nicholas and Alisoun] go to bed, where the carpenter is accustomed to lie” (3648-3651). The youth demonstrate a lack of principle compared to the Christian standards set forth by the church. Similarly, “The Miller’s Tale” describes the evident rise in indecent exposure in society. Obscene exposure was one of the most common sexual offenses during the Middle Ages and was not supported by religious institutions. This is demonstrated in the text when “[Nicholas] opened the window hastily and put his ass stealthily over the buttock, to the thigh” (3801-3803). The action of revealing his buttock out the window, among other sins committed in the story, brings to light the beginnings of a cultural shift in moral principles. Accordingly, Chaucer demonstrates that as the characters continued to commit sinful acts throughout the story and society drifted away from the church, the habits of society were