Revenge And Advantage In Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales

What do you think it would take to tell the perfect story? The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is a collection of stories put together into one narrative. In this story, the characters go on pilgrimage. While on this pilgrimage they are to tell stories, with one being the winner. In order to be the winner, the Host get to be the judge of it, your tale has to be entertaining as well as morally sound. Both “The Miller’s Tale” and “The Reeve’s Tale” tell embarrassing stories about one another. When the Miller tells his tale to all of the pilgrims he tells it with enthusiasm, he is able to get people to pay attention. Whereas when the Reeve tells his tale, he is solely basing it off of anger and revenge. This anger isn’t very well liked among …show more content…
The main character named was named John, he was a carpenter. He was very gullible, and not so bright. In this tale he is very soft-hearted and cares for his wife dearly, as he “loved her more than life”(89) Alisoun was his wife's name, the name of an unfaithful woman in this case. There was a young scholar renting out a room of their house in Oxford. His name was Nicholas, who Alisoun fell for. By the end of the story the carpenter ended up with a cheating wife and a broken arm...perhaps a broken ego as well. Alisoun did the worst and she does not feel any regret or any feelings of unfaithfulness for cheating on her husband. It is obvious that John cared so deeply for her and he deserved more than what he got from …show more content…
The reasoning for this is mainly due to the fact that the Miller is in an excited mood, which could be because he is drunk, but what is new with that? He admitted, “To say I’m drunk, I know it by my sound”(87). The Miller told a rather bawdy tale “Of an old carpenter and of his wife,/ And how a student came and set his cap…”(87). Drunk and cheerful, “The Miller’s Tale” is told based off of fun and amusement of telling a funny and naughty story. This tale is also more entertaining than “The Reeve’s Tale” because the Miller does an outstanding job with expressing his word. By doing this, he gets the attention from the readers because it makes it seem like a real life situation, accurately portraying the characters with detailed descriptions so that the readers can picture them clearly. He describes Alisoun, “She was a fair young wife, her body as slender/ As any weasel’s, and as soft as tender;”(90). The mood and word choice from the Miller gives the tale an easy going tone