The Characters in the Millers Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer

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The Characters in the Millers Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer

During the middle ages, religion was the matrix of a person’s

life. Everything, even boiling an egg, depended on religion, for the

egg was cooked when the prayer was finished. With religion came

certain morals and ideals that even now are associated with

Christianity. A person was viewed based on how he measured up to the

ideals of his profession or position in life. This was mostly proven

in the satiric tone that Geoffrey Chaucer chooses to give to the

narrator, in the Prologue, when describing such corrupt characters as

the Monk and the Pardoner. The Miller’s Tale further illustrates this

point by showing that a person who does not follow the ideals that are

set up for him by birth and religion, will be punished for his sins.

John the Carpenter is a good man, but he makes a mistake by marrying a

woman who is two times younger than he is. Because his young bride is

beautiful and lively, “jealous he was and kept her in a cage . . .”

Jealousy is a sin and the...

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