In his Miller’s Tale, Chaucer’s Miller weaves a tale which incorporates all three medieval estates, and develops a narrative which, when placed under examination, can be demonstrated as surpassing the simplistic and crude nature commonly attributed to such fabliaux. While his outward behavior in the Miller’s Prologue seems to immediately suggest a subversion of chivalric ideals, “So that with trouble upon his horse he sat,/ Nor bothered to doff his hood or hat,/ Nor deferred to anyone out of courtesy” the purpose of the Miller’s Tale is not to provoke those accustomed to more genteel manners to relinquish themselves of their learned moral and social restraint. (Chaucer 167) By lampooning romantic ideals, the Miller’s Tale effectively pays back …show more content…
Nicholas comes out of the events that unfold in the tale with the most material advantages. However, the Miller takes care to address the reader with this summary at the conclusion of the tale, “And Absolon had kissed her nether eye;/ And Nicholas is scalded in the bum./ This tale is done, and God save all the company!” which seems to suggest that no one in the tale has come out unscathed, and that each of the characters must ultimately reckon with God’s judgement of their actions. (Chaucer 205) In Nicholas’s case, his crimes seem to go beyond merely humiliating his fellow man. Nicholas imagines himself to be a kind of god figure, the designer of the events that ultimately unfold in the Miller’s Tale. However, the parish clerk humiliates the apparent intelligence with which he hatched his plan when he brands him with the poker. It is as if Absolon, for a brief moment, is acting in the name of Providence by punishing Nicholas for the arrogance to liken himself to God. Taking note of this, the noble ideals of order and just that might be more abundant in the Knight’s Tale are again reaffirmed in the Miller’s
...night, the Miller's characters are not moral or honorable; they simply want to gratify themselves. While the Knight's story ends with an honorable death and a union between lovers, the Miller's tale ends with humiliation: the cuckholded husband is branded insane, Absolom suffered and prank, and Nicolas a painful burn. Consequently the Miller mocks the Knight's prayer. He wishes the company well, but the content of his tale expresses his laughter. In a way he "paid back" the Knight's tale.
The Merchant's Prologue and Tale presents the darkest side of Chaucer's discussion on marriage. Playing off both the satire of the moral philosopher, the Clerk, and the marital stage set by the Wyf of Bathe, the Merchant comes forth with his angry disgust about his own marital fate. Disillusioned and depraved, the Merchant crafts a tale with a main character who parallels his own prevarication and blind reductionism while he simultaneously tries to validate his own wanton life by selling his belief to the other pilgrims. As both pervert reality through pecuniary evaluations on different levels, however, both are exposed to be blind fools, subject to the very forces that they exert on others. As this reversal happens and the Merchant satirizes Januarie blindness, Chaucer reveals the Merchant's blindness, giving him the very significance that he had spent his whole tale trying to deny.
8. To get revenge, Absalom borrows a red-hot poker from a blacksmith and returns to Allison's window. He begs her once more to come out for a kiss, but little does she know he has a surprise for her. Thinking he was clever, Nicholas sticks his butt out the window and suddenly farts in Absalom’s face. Quickly, Absalom plunges the red-hot poker in Nicholas’s butt and he screams. “He was ready with his iron hot and Nicholas right in the arse he got it” (Chaucer 101).
In “The Pardoner’s Tale,” Geoffrey Chaucer masterfully frames an informal homily. Through the use of verbal and situational irony, Chaucer is able to accentuate the moral characteristics of the Pardoner. The essence of the story is exemplified by the blatant discrepancy between the character of the storyteller and the message of his story. By analyzing this contrast, the reader can place himself in the mind of the Pardoner in order to account for his psychology.
One of the narrative techniques used by the Miller is irony. He uses this when speaking of God as he combines the idea of the sexual and the sacred. He states that `an housbonde shal nat been inquisitif of Goddes privetee, nor of his wyf so he may finde Goddes foison there.' The theme of foretelling the future is vital in this tale and is hinted at in this remark by the Miller which is then immediately taken up in the account of Nicholas' powers as an astrologer. The Miller here is saying that as long as the husband gets goodness from his wife, he does not need to worry and enquire too closely in...
Chaucer's "The Miller's Tale" should be tragic, because a lot of horrible things happen to the characters. The carpenter's wife is disloyal to him, sleeping with others and making fun of him with Nicholas. Also, he is depicted as a fool. However, readers get a humorous feeling from the story, rather than feeling sorry for the carpenter's unfair life. Chaucer makes the whole story come across as comic rather than tragic. This humor is created by the Miller's narration, the use of irony, the cartoon-like characters, and the twists of plot. These elements combine to produce an emotional distance which enhances the comic effect.
There are many aspects of The Knight's Tale that strike the reader as unusual or disturbing. When Palomon first spots Emily, he “cries out” as if he were physically injured, the injury of course being located in his heart (32). The concept of a character being struck with “love-at-first-sight” pains (reminiscent of Ovid's signs of love sickness) is a fairly common convention for a romance to use; Anyone of Chaucer's time who had read a romance before would recognize this. Even Palomon's short monologue about claiming to be able to die from Emily's beauty, and his questioning of whether or not she is a human or a goddess, safely fit into one's expectations of a typical romance, however exaggerated they may sound (32). The knight, in telling the story, likewise shows no surprise at Palomon's sudden burst of emotion; to him this sort of reaction is expected. Because the knight is supposed to represent the typical status quo of high-ranking aristocracy, this is the sort of story he is used to himself- it's likely that he is simply repeating a story he knows by memory, without any thought of questioning it. One the things this does for Chaucer is demonstrate how well he “knows his stuff”; basically he is able to show off h...
In the Miller's Tale, Chaucer blatantly mocks courtesy and courtly love in Nicholas’ exchange with Alison:
However, after hearing his tale it is quite shocking about his frankness about his own hypocrisy. We know that he bluntly accuses himself of fraud, avarice, and gluttony, all things that he preaches against throughout this tale. It is in lines, 432-433 that the Pardoner states, “But that is not my principal intent; I preach nothing but for convenience.” It is here that we truly begin to learn that The Pardoner’s Tale is merely an example of a story that is often used by preachers to emphasize a moral point to their audience. That is why, this tale in particular helps to comprehend Chaucer’s own opinions, and how he used satire to display them.
The structure Geoffrey Chaucer chose for his masterpiece, The Canterbury Tales, of utilizing a melange of narrative voices to tell separate tales allows him to explore and comment on subjects in a multitude of ways. Because of this structure of separate tales, the reader must regard as extremely significant when tales structurally overlap, for while the reader may find it difficult to render an accurate interpretation through one tale, comparing tales enables him to lessen the ambiguity of Chaucer’s meaning. The Clerk’s Tale and The Merchant’s Tale both take on the institution of marriage, but comment on it in entirely different manner, but both contain an indictment of patriarchal narcissism and conceit.
“The Canterbury Tales” was written in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer. These tales constitutes a frame story which each pilgrim has to tell their own story to the Chaucer, the pilgrim; not the poet. As we know, the tale itself is a satire, but the stylistic structure in the tales creates a sense that can be a parody as well. To support this idea of parody, it is need to know the definition of parody and how Chaucer use this style to make his own ideas clear through the general prologue and the tales such as “The Miller’s Tale” and “The Knight’s Tale”.
In The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer, the stereotypes and roles in society are reexamined and made new through the characters in the book. Chaucer discusses different stereotypes and separates his characters from the social norm by giving them highly ironic and/or unusual characteristics. Specifically, in the stories of The Wife of Bath and The Miller’s Tale, Chaucer examines stereotypes of women and men and attempts to define their basic wants and needs.
In his attempt to surpass the Knight, the Miller sacrifices decorum for the sake of entertainment, reflecting his bawdy nature. When first traveling with the Miller, Chaucer listened to the Miller bellow “his ballads and jokes of harlotries” (1712). Scandalous topics appear throughout the Miller’s tale of a young girl “so graceful and so slim” named Alison who cheats on her husband, John, with his student, Nicholas (1720). When “handy Nicholas” first encounters Alison, he “[catches] her between the legs” and woos her, and they devise a plan to sleep with each other secretly (1721). This lecherous scheme fuels the entire plot of the tale. However, the parish clerk Absolom with his “gray eyes” and “nightingale” nature, typical attributes of lusty men, attempts to win Alison’s heart (1722, 1723). Although Absolom utilizes every method to win Alison’s heart even chewing “licorice and cardamom,” he ends up kissing her “bare bum” whereas Nicholas sleeps with her (1729, 1730). Chaucer’s initial encounter with the drunken Mi...
We have all heard the common adage “Practice what you preach.” Another version of this sentiment can be found in the saying “You cannot just talk the talk; you must walk the walk.” In other words, it is commonly considered useless for one to talk about doing something or living a certain way if he does not actually live out those words. It is overall a sentiment that denounces hypocrisy. This idea is explored by Geoffrey Chaucer in his “Pardoner’s Prologue and Tale,” as well as the Introduction to the tale. Chaucer identifies a pardoner as his main character for the story and utilizes the situational and verbal irony found in the pardoner’s interactions and deplorable personality to demonstrate his belief in the corruption of the Roman Catholic Church during this time.
In the Middle Ages, when The Canterbury Tales was written, society became captivated by love and the thought of courtly and debonair love was the governing part of all relationships and commanded how love should be conducted. These principles changed literature completely and created a new genre dedicated to brave, valorous knights embarking on noble quests with the intention of some reward, whether that be their life, lover, or any other want. The Canterbury Tales, written in the 14th century by Geoffrey Chaucer, accurately portrays and depicts this type of genre. Containing a collection of stories within the main novel, only one of those stories, entitled “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, truly outlines the 14th century community beliefs on courtly love.