The Miller's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer is a mirror of medieval society particularly in the way it depicts the relationships between men and women as well as giving a realistic portrait of working class people during the middle ages. Alison, the main character illustrates how a woman was able to use her sex through her actions of deceit to many characters. Popular belief holds that courtly love was prevalent during the medieval period; however The Miller's Tale provides a more realistic look into sexual relationships through its use of infidelity and sexual humor. Chaucer's characters are typical middle class workers rather than elite nobility. In addition, many of the characters seem heartless and corrupt. Alison's character is far away from most others in her mere selfishness followed by inappropriate humor leading to Nicolas and his "injury." She responds to her husband's jealousy and protective nature by a flirtatious demeanor. As most literature does, The Miller's Tale has a moral even though it's slanted and the punishable party is no t appropriately disciplined. Love in this time period was portrayed in a different manner than in The Miller's Tale. Though Alison was not high in the class system, she could not have been considered "good" enough for any lord as a mistress or any common man as a wife, "For any lord to leggen in his bedde, Or yet for any good yeman to wedde", (Lines 161-162). Though, when Alison was wed to an older man she lacked any attraction and longed to be away from him. Alison is thought to be a newly budded youthful pear tree suggesting her childlike vibrancy and causing many to consider her desirable. Chaucer uses many statements that can be interpreted in a different manner with massive ambiguity. ... ... middle of paper ... ...held with a different responsibility for there actions. Women had a fear for there husbands more than a respect. While Alison cheated on her husband, she worried that he would have her and/or Nicolas killed. She didn't worry that he would be hurt in the matter. The only character that had any sensitivity was Absolon. He chose to declare his love for Alison in a more courteous and classic manner. Society is portrayed differently now than the medieval period. Women are stereotyped of as the overly sensitive while men lack. In The Miller's Tale, the roles were exchanged. It was a popular thought that courtly love was more common during Chaucer's time but he shows a different approach and a "behind the scenes" look at middle class people. A fairy tale has a moral that is clear and concise, however, The Miller's Tale has a moral but it's more discrete and indefinite.
How Secrecy is Presented in The Miller’s Tale Secrecy is a prominent theme in The Miller’s Tale and Chaucer uses it to not only make the tale more interesting but also to give the characters more depth, or in the case of Alison less depth. The way that secrecy is presented and what effects it has will be discussed. Chaucer introduces the reader to secrecy at the beginning of the tale in The Miller’s Prologue, indicating its importance, ‘An housbande shal not been inqusitif of Goddes privetee,’ and this immediately makes the reader assume that at least one of the characters will in fact be inquisitive of ‘Goddes privetee’ and that there will be secrets in The Miller’s Tale. The element of secrecy is evident in the characters and their descriptions. This is necessary as the characters in the tale are of a fabliau sort and the incorporation of sex with ‘low-life’ characters requires secrecy, and the description sets the tone for the 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.
In The Miller’s Tale, Chaucer introduces a romantic drama between a carpenter, his wife, her lover, and her suitor. This chaotic narrative belongs to the fabliau genre, as it depicts a fantastical and crude story that seems to deal satirically with the concept of love. However, Chaucer complicates the satirical narrative with the character of Alisoun. Instead of creating a traditional adulteress in the carpenter’s wife, Chaucer allows Alisoun to exist in multiple forms and produces a multidimensional character. Through the use of the male perspective, comparisons to animals, and Alisoun’s defiance of social boundaries, Chaucer frees Alisoun from becoming a stock character, as her many contradictory characteristics transform her into a complex
Women are prizes to be won over in this tale. Competition for women is portrayed throughout the entire story. This competition leads to lies and deceit which overall creates an unstable conflict. But, because of the way of life, the people who don’t lie and deceit still lose out in the end. Therefore, Chaucer teaches us that life isn’t fair and that people don’t always get what they deserve.
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.
Similarly Framed by a love triangle, the Miller employs the same structure as the Knight. The Knight’s tale involves Arcite and Palamon who are cousins who both fell in love with Emily. Likewise, the Miller’s tale. involves a love triangle between Alison, Nicholas and the. astrology student and Absolon, a parish clerk.
Some say women can get the worst out of a man, but in The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer in 1485, proves it. The tales were originally written as a collection of twenty four tales, but has been narrowed down to three short tales for high school readers. The three tales consist of “The Miller”, “The Knight”, and “The Wife of Bath” along with their respective prologues. In The Canterbury Tales, Chaucer shows the weak but strong role of women throughout the “The Knight’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” to contrast different human characteristics and stereotypes on the spectrum of people.
However in "The Miller's Tale," Chaucer presents us with characters that are punished for being deeply flawed. Therefore as readers we naturally make our own moral judgements on the characters' behaviour. Chaucer indicates to us that the setting of "The Miller's Tale," is religious, through details such as Absolon's occupation as a, "parissh clerk" or John fetching the wood from the monastery. However Chaucer makes it clear through using this religious backdrop for "Th...
The Canterbury Tales has many stories with multiple meaning and messages, but love is one subject that is argued throughout the book. There are two stories of the book that are discussed quite often on this subject “The Franklin’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”. “The Franklin’s Tale” argues that a marriage where everyone is considered equal is superior while the “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” supports the idea that a marriage best works with a woman being in charge. These two stories argue the two dramatically different opinions of gender relations in marriage, with their own tales as examples to support their position. Since the Wife’s tale is based off of inequality in relationships while the Franklin’s tale is centered around equal gender relations. Due to this the Franklin’s tale is of course the ideal situation.
Alison in the Miller's Tale and May of the Merchant's Tale are similar in several ways. Both are young women who have married men much older than themselves. They both become involved with young, manipulative men. They also conspire to and do cuckold their husbands. This is not what marriage is about and it is demonstrated in both tales. What makes the Miller's Tale bawdy comedy and the Merchant's tale bitter satire is in the characterization. In the Miller's tale we are giving stereotyped characters. The principals are cardboard cut-outs sent into farcical motion. The Merchant's Tale gives us much more background and detail of the character's lives. The reader is more involved and can feel their situations. Here we will focus on the two women of each tale and how they demonstrate this difference.
During the medieval ages, women were described as evil creatures that would destroy anyone standing in their way to get what they want. People claimed that women's malicious intentions clouded their judgment from doing the right thing forcing them to be selfish. In Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales and Malory’s The Death of King Arthur, both focus on women’s behavioral impulses through their dishonesty, manipulation, and their promiscuity.
... allows the present day reader to gain insight into commonly held beliefs regarding women during the 14th century. By allowing Alison to have a sense of humor and joke about aspects of her marriage, Chaucer was able to make numerous points regarding women that would not have been acknowledged had a female author created them. By making Alison a laughable character, Chaucer was able to make points about women such as the unfairness of double standards, the acknowledgement of female desire, and the reality of women marrying well to improve their economic situations. Chaucer also provides us with detailed examples of commonly held stereotypes regarding women that are still relevant approximately seven centuries later.
During the Middle Ages using the method of courtly love was very common. It was defined as a way of worshiping a woman to get their attention and love in a noble way by doing heroic deeds or just by giving the women gifts. Back then the most known courtly lovers were the knights for being known as very chivalrous and noble men. In “the Miller’s Tale”, the use of courtly love is the complete opposite of what it usually is. The story telling the story, in other words the miller makes a complete parody of courtly love and what it stands for, he makes it seem very vulgar by the way he talks about the characters in a very sexual manner and the deeds that the characters do throughout the story. I think this story was made for that purpose, to make a fool of what courtly love really is, because in reality the miller thinks that courtly love is just a waste of time and thinks it’s just foolishness to believe that love is really like that.
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.
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.