Millers Tale Essays

Millers Tale Essays Millers Tale Paper Millers Tale Paper We learn from the Millers portrait that his mouth as great as a greet forneys and he tells synne and noriotries. We know from this that the Miller will be telling a crude story and using crude language, not a romance. We also know that the Miller is lower class and has more brawn than brains. This shows he will be telling an obscene story of how he perceives reality, which is likely to be about lust and adultery, as in all fabliaus. In the beginning of the prologue the Miller has already insulted the host by disrupting the social harmony. He has also offended the Reeve, whose job is a carpenter. Traditionally there was a rivalry between Millers and carpenters. This makes the tale more suited to the Miller as he sets out to offend the Reeve. The Millers offensive character shows through in this offensive tale. We see from the prologue that the Miller has a thumb of gold meaning that he steels some of the flour that he grindes for the local people. This shows how dishonest and devious the Miller is. This makes him well suited to tell the tale as it is all about dishonesty and lack of trust and loyalty. The tale is about adultery and the miller believes that all women are adulterous and tells the Reeve that He who hath no wife, he is no cokewold. In the tale we were told that John was jealous and heeld hire narwe in cage. This shows that John has similar views to those of the Miller because he cannot trust his wife. The Miller is uneducated and sets out to offend Nicolas who is clever and educated. This is why in the end Nicolas is punished by being scalded in the towte. Absolon is also attracted because he is effeminate. This miller dislikes effeminate men because he himself is very masculine. Absolon is also punished because he falls for Alisons trick and he hath kist hir nether ye. Although all these points show that the Miller is suited to this tale, there are some critics that believe that this tale was too intellectual for the miller. The miller includes a cameo role for himself as the knave Robin. But some critics argue that he was not intelligent enough to think of this. He also wouldnt have been able to think of using the word hende ironically when talking about Nicolas. Even though this tale is a fabliau, there are some conventions of a romance, such as the long portraits of Alison and Absolon. We also see these conventions when Abslon is trying to win over Alison and he calls her Darling and my sweetest bird. Yet the Miller would not be clever enough to know how to import these conventions into the fabliau. In the Millers prologue we are told that Oure hooste saugh that he was dronke of ale. Because the Miller was in such a drunken state critics argue that he wouldnt have been able to remember every little detail of the tale and that he would have not been in any state to tell it in rhyming couplets. Over all I think that this fabliau is well suited to its teller because both the story, and the Millers thoughts on life are obscene and rude. The tale is told by the Miller who things that all women are dishonest and easy, which is how women and relationships and portrayed in the tale. MIllers tale Essays MIllers tale Paper MIllers tale Paper Courtly Love in Chaucer and Marie de France In his The Millers Tale Chaucer presents a side of the courtly love tradition never seen before. His characters are average middle class workers rather than elite nobility. There is an interesting comparison between the Millers characters and those in two of Marie de Frances lais that share very close plot lines. Instead of being idealized Chaucers characters are gritty. Instead of being involved in courtly love there is some evidence that the relationship between Alison and Nicholas is one of lust. Chaucers use of the lower class makes the absurdity of what they are doing stand out. In the lais of Marie de France, Guigemare and Yonec, are built on the same archetype which is the same as Chaucers Millers tale uses. Maries lais can give provide a set of ground rules for this archetype. The two lais share several similar elements. They both contain the same three central characters, who possesses fundamental similarities, the same beginning plot line and several of the same themes. Thefirst character shared by the two lais is the storys villain, the aged husband. He is a powerful lord who is much older than his wife. Because he is conscious of this fact, he worries constantly that his wife will betray him, so he locks her up. He is both the least and most important figure in the story. Hes important because without his presence and actions the story could never take place. But he has very little actual interaction with the other two more central characters. The husband in Yonec is never described as meeting either his wife or her lover. In Guigemare the husband, wife and Guigemare are only together when the two lovers are discovered. The figure of the beautiful, imprisoned wife is the second central character. She is the quintessential damsel in distress, beautiful, noble (and with the exception of her one true love) chaste. The third character is the valiant lover who rescues t