The Miller's Tale

The Miller in Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales tells a story about infidelity, mischievousness, and floods, all centering around a young girl. The central character in “The Miller’s Tale” is an eighteen-year-old girl named Alisoun. The girl, married to a carpenter, begins an affair with one of her tenants and teases another man in town. However, she is not described to be the flirtatious woman her actions show her to be. The description of Alisoun made by Chaucer does not make her a sympathetic…

themes and there are many ways that the author uses to present the theme to the reader. And “The Miller’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale” are not exceptions to the rule. The stories use imagery and the action of the characters to present the numerous themes to the reader and the presentation is done throughout the work. In “The Miller’s Tale” and “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale”, desire, especially sexual desire, is an important part of human being. And there is nothing…

As a child, my mother always told me that it is very vital to know the Bible for yourself versus believing any and everything that someone tells you about the Bible. After reading The Miller’s Prologue and Tale, it is quite clear that the biblical story about Noah’s flood was twisted around in the Miller’s Tale. In the story, the carpenter was told by Nicholas that it was going to be another great flood like it was in the bible. Nicholas convinces the carpenter of such thing in order to be with…

Pleasure and Pain Both the Miller’s tale and the Reeve’s tale are quite comical at first glance, but when taking a closer look, one can easily take many life lessons from these two stories. Chaucer held no bars in these two tales. The Miller’s tale takes a more comedic and jolly approach, yet his tale still lays a plot thick with deceit, sin, and pleasure at someone else’s expense. Diving into the Reeve’s tale spins a spiteful tale to mock and prod the miller while holding a comedic tone all the…

The Miller’s Tale” by Chaucer, centres around one female and three men. Chaucer skilfully uses the limited number of characters to represent more than just two simple genders. By linking to feminist literature, critics spot a clear pattern within these texts of a woman’s struggle for equality and acceptance as a human being, before becoming a victim of gender stereotypes , similarly to Alisoun. However, in contrast, we can debate that the male characters within this prose experience gender…

Chaucer does not believe that courtly love provides a useful set of rules and behaviours to guide men and women in their relationships, because in the Miller’s Tale he seems to be mocking the idea of courtly love. Through the analysis of the two major characters, Nicholas and Absolon, their adherence to the rules of courtly love and the relative success in their relationships explains what Chaucer is telling us about courtly love. Both characters adhere to the rules of courtly love, however…

Beowulf and “The Miller’s Tale” are two pieces of literature that show how religious beliefs can play roles in character choices in the stories. In Beowulf, Beowulf believes in God so he knows he will be taken care of. Beowulf gives all the credit to God for his success but Hrothgar does not. In “The Miller’s Tale,” John and Absalom believe in God but Nicholas believes in astrology. Believing in astrology leads Nicholas to lie and feel like he was not in the wrong. John and Absalom are both…

My connections examined the portrayal of alienation in mainstream society. I chose to use texts from a modern time period to help create more concrete conclusions about mainstream society. My texts were Education for Leisure by Carol Ann Duffy, Sad Joke on a Marae by Apirana Taylor, District 9 directed by Neill Blomkamp and Barton Fink directed by Joel Coen. I expected all of my texts to be able to reflect one another as they were all from a similar time period. In particular, I expected…

In Chaucer 's "Miller 's Prologue and Tale" and Marlowe 's "Hero and Leander," both authors build their stories around the misrepresentation of love. Nicholas and Alisoun use each other for sex and other favors, pretending it is love for their benefit. Furthermore, Leander’s love for Hero comes…

Throughout the Canterbury Tales, Chaucer uses different literary devices to develop tone and attitude about his character’s and their actions. Chaucer specifically satirizes the Miller in the General Prologue, Miller’s Prologue, and the Miller’s Tale to present his opposing views on education and religion by developing the Miller’s appearance, ignorance, and immaturity undesirably. Throughout literature, undesirable features are given to characters authors disdain, dislike, and satirize. In this…