Actor Anson Mount said, “I think all of us have a hero and villain in us.” This quote comes to mind when reading Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Miller’s Tale. Sir Gawain is a noble knight with high morals and very spiritual. He is flawed, like a villain would be, but still maintains his noble and heroeic qualities. The Miller’s Tale on the other hand has no hero. Both the storyteller and the main character in this story come across as low class villains. Both The Green Knight and The Miller’s Tale were written in 14th century Middle English, and include romance, but have very different plots. While the plots are different, they are similar because they both use foreshadowing and suspense to guide the reader through the story. Even though both main characters in the
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The original versions of both are impossible to understand without a formal education in Middle English. From reading the modern interpretations it is obvious The Miller’s Tale was told by a socially low class common person, and the words used are reflective of that. Compared to the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight who was obviously well educated and of a higher social ranking, had a serious story with use of bigger words that seemed to have a more complicated and indirect flow. Even the modern day interpretation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is difficult to understand, making the lighthearted tale of The Miller’s Tale a favorite. What is obvious is while both main characters had the ability to be either a villain or hero, the social ranking of the author of each story impacted the outcome. The more educated author’s main character was a hero, both noble and honorable, while the socially challenged miller’s main character was as socially challenged and morally disgraceful as his
The original versions of both are impossible to understand without a formal education in Middle English. From reading the modern interpretations it is obvious The Miller’s Tale was told by a socially low class common person, and the words used are reflective of that. Compared to the author of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight who was obviously well educated and of a higher social ranking, had a serious story with use of bigger words that seemed to have a more complicated and indirect flow. Even the modern day interpretation of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is difficult to understand, making the lighthearted tale of The Miller’s Tale a favorite. What is obvious is while both main characters had the ability to be either a villain or hero, the social ranking of the author of each story impacted the outcome. The more educated author’s main character was a hero, both noble and honorable, while the socially challenged miller’s main character was as socially challenged and morally disgraceful as his