The Miller's Prologue and Tale

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The Miller's Prologue and Tale is a humorous story about a love triangle of three men and one woman. The tale has many intriguing parts but the most important theme is that of loyalty.

In the beginning of the tale, the carpenter, John, talks about his wife, how she is so much younger then him and how he is a very jealous man: "This carpenter hadde wedded a newe a wif / Which that he loved more than his lif. / Of eighteteen yeer she was of age; / Jalous he was wilde and yong, and he was old / And deemed himself been lik a cokewold" (113). He is talking about his new wife, and that although he loves her dearly, he is very jealous because he is so old and she is so young. It is very strange that a beautiful young woman would marry a man so much older then him. The carpenter even states that: "Men shold wedden after hir estat" (121) which means that men should marry according to their condition. So I think that the carpenter is a wealthy man, and because of this, he feels he should marry a beautiful woman. Going with that, I believe that the young woman, Alison, married this old man, for his money, and not based of true love. So if this marriage wasn't based on true love, it leaves room for disloyalty to come about.

The disloyalty starts when Alison and Nicholas, the boarder, start flirting and he wants to kiss her. She says no, that she will do it when they are alone in private: "Myn housbonde is so ful of jalousye / That but ye waite wel and been privee / I woot right wel I nam but deed" (186). Alison states that he husband, as said before is madly jealous, so they intend to wait and find a place to be in private so they can be together without having to worry about being caught. After thinking, they came up with an idea: "That Nicholas shal shapen hem a wile / This sely jalous housbonde to bigile / and if so be this game wente aright, / She sholden sleepen in his arm al night" (295). They decide that they are going to have a plan, and if everything goes ok, by the end, they will be sleeping in each others arms all night.

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