Lower Class In The Canterbury Tales

Throughout the tale of the Miller in “The Canterbury Tales” he provides a reliable perspective of the lower class despite his confessed intoxication before the story. Even though his storytelling abilities may not be as refined as the Knight, who is considered to be in the upper class, he was able to prove that even commoners are capable of expressing a satisfying narrative. The Miller tone’s throughout the tale is very rough, but it fits very well in the story he is able to accurately set up the setting and characters. Thanks to that effort, he was able to reliably set up the views and beliefs of the lower class that existed during the Middle Ages. The tale distinguished the differences between the upper and lower classes in what they value more and how religion affect their lives. One of the …show more content…
In these lines, the Miller states that “One shouldn’t be inquiring anyway into God’s privities”, which symbolizes how people shouldn’t be involving themselves into God’s affairs. Even though he also applies the same logic to other wives as well, it should be speculated that he believes that others shouldn’t question the secrets of the God and that they should attend to their own business instead. This accurately depicts the commoner's attitudes towards their religion because many villagers were often involved with the church in one way or another and were taught not to doubt God’s intentions. This isn’t the case for John the Carpenter though since he desired to avoid the supposed “flood” similar to Noah’s Ark at all costs while also keeping Alisoun alive. Nicholas is also a notable exception in that he studies astrology which can be described as “studying into God’s privacy”. These evidence hints that even though the working class is devoted to Christianity, they are too attached to their earthly beings to give up their whole life for