THE MILLER’S TALE

DAN CALLAHAN, NICK CHRISTAINALEX JANKOWSKI, SEAN QUINN

Miller HoseyHonors English 12 Period 6/7

10/31/11

GENRE TYPE/DESCRIPTION• Satires• Mockery• Verbal Irony• Elegies • Fantasy fiction • Poetry• Translations • Allegories• Parodies

SUMMARY

• The Miller interrupts the group– “The prologue to the Miller's Tale locates the Miller initially in terms of physical

positioning, introducing him as someone who drunkenly cuts in front of the Monk”(Lomperis)

• Tale begins with John and Nicolas• John married to Alison; Nicolas falls in love with her• Absolon• The lie told by Nicolas; Alison and Nicolas’ intentions• Absolon comes to Alison for a kiss• Absolon takes revenge• John and the bathtub• “This tale is done, and God save the company!”

SETTING• Oxford- one of the cities in England• Mainly illustrated in and around the Carpenter’s house• Known for the university nearby• Story told over one and a half weeks(Friday to Monday)• Friday- beginning of the tale • Saturday- “And so it chanced that on a Saturday, this

carpenter departed to Osney (Page 11 Line 291-2)• Sunday-And ate and slept, or did what pleased him best,

till Sunday when the sun had gone to rest (Page 11 Line 313-4)

• Next Sunday- “That now come Monday next, at nine of night, shall fall a rain so wildly mad as would” (Page 14 Line 408-9)

CHARACTERS

John the Carpenter

• Craft and Wife=all he had• Gullible• Poor (Page 4, Line 82)• Old (Page 5, Line 117)• Protective• Thought of as “crazy” in the end• “The carpenter about whom the Miller tells

directly points to St. Joseph of the Holy Family (Rowland)

• Also related to Noah (wife not part of his boat)

Absalom • Good appearance (Page 8, Lines 206-216)• Womanizer… not really• Went to bars (strange) (Page 8, Line 226)• Golden curly hair• Did not like farting (foreshadow)(Page 8, Line 230)• Brands Nicolas

“Plays the part of courtly lover by repeating the Song of Songs” (Lomperis)

Nicolas

• Wealthy, friendly• Wants Alison• Astrologist (Page 4 Line 84)• Branded by Absalom• Beguiles John and town(Page 12, Line 385-88) and (Page 24, Line 738)“Nicolas as the Evil one and Alison as Eve”

(Lomperis)

Alison

• Beautiful (Page 6 Line 127)• Attraction of all the men• “Representation of the “prize” serves to mock

and subvert the Knight’s chivalric culture” (Patterson)

• Helps deceive John• Kissed in the arse (Page 21, Line 626)

Minor (but essential) Characters

Robyn- servant knave of John“Chaucer has the Miller place in his tale a young servant of his own name, Robyn” (Eyler)•Shows the strength, but not “smarts” with the door hinge (Page 12 Line 361)Dan Jarvis•Blacksmith•No importance•Gives Absalom the hot poker

SYMBOLS?

SYMBOLS

General Symbols •Springtime•Clothing•Physiognomy

Specific Examples from The Millers Tale•Kneading Trough, Tub, and Kimelin•Imagery: Animals •Allegory: The Fall of Man•The Hot Poker

MOTIFS

MOTIFS

• Romance– Alison causes men to fall in love with her– Whole plot based upon love

• Blindness– All characters blind to the obvious

• Absolom with Alison– “Absolon seems to indulge a kind of unattached flurry that anticipates his failures to locate himself in

real perceptual fields”(Gallacher)

• John with the flood– “It is easy for an educated scholar (Nicolas) to play on the superstition of a medieval carpenter."

(Rumsey)

• Nicolas and Alison short minded

• Dirty Humor– Why does Chaucer use dirty humor in the plot(Farts, buttocks jokes)?

• Looks down upon character’s actions

THEMES?

THEMES• The desire for sex is the ultimate goal.

– Youthful and old acceptable sexual pairing?– Difference between sex and love

• Love versus Lust– What does love really mean?– Love is either misguided or not love at all

• Lies and deceit versus reality and the truth– There is a “large contrast between what is real or truthful and

what one character tells another” (Gallacher).– Cheating, tricks

• All for sex• Competition for an ultimate prize leads to the corruption of

morals.– Love triangle = two men compete for a woman– Woman = “prize”

FIGURATIVE LANUAGE• Some about setting

– “Dark was the night as pitch, aye dark as coal” (623).• “Chaucer uses strong similes and metaphors to

describe his well developed characters”(Sexton)– The carpenter

• “This carpenter had recently married a wife whom he loved more than he loved his life” (113-115)

• “He was old, And deemed himself as like to be cuckold” (117-118).

– Cuckold = husband to an unfaithful wife– Nicolas

• “he was sly and meek as and virgin passing by” (93-94).– Sly=cunning/secret meek=patient/tame

• “Nicholas had just then let fly a fart as loud as it had been a thunderclap” (698-699)

Figurative Language cont.

– Absalom• “Curled was his hair, shining like gold” (206).• Says to Alison: “I have such love-longing that like a

turtle-dove’s my true yearning” (597-598).• Says to Alison: “I can eat no more than can a maid”

(599).– Alison

• “Fair was this youthful wife, and therewithal as weasel’s was her body slim and small” (125-126).

• “And songs came shrilling from her pretty head as from a swallow’s sitting on a shed” (149-150).

• Shrilling – loud pitched and piercing sound• “Her forehead shone as bright as does the May” (202).

ALLUSIONS

Saint Benedict and Paul

• Benedict Paulpatron saint influenced of education and the spread of Students religion and Catholicism(Page 8, Line 210) (Page 12, Line 375)

Absalom

• Alluded to throughout the tale

• “peaceful”- contradiction

• “Noted for his personal beauty And extraordinary profusion of the hairIn his head” (Sam)

Noah• “Noah’s Ark”• (Page 14, Line 426)• “essential to the central action is the story of

Noah and the Flood, which dramatists treated as one of the most important prefigurations in the cycle” (Eyler)

Pontius Pilate• (Page 1, Line 16)• “The expression “Pilate voys” points tothe fact that voice, not body is the importance of this narration” (Lomperis) • Man who crucified Jesus• Prefect of the Roman province Judea• Strong Leader• People Listened to him- connects himTo the narrator

Mystery Plays(Page 3, Line 78)

Medieval plays

Forms of the Biblical Texts

Called “games” or miracles”

“game was equivalent for dramatic performance to support his claim that a proclamation admonishing an audience to keep quiet and not interrupt the “game” was a fragment of the Mystery Play (Rowland)

St. Joseph

• Husband of the virgin Mary

• Carpenter

• Relates to John“Like St. Joseph, he too was aged, married to a

young wife, and fearful of being cuckolded” (Rowland)

Cato

• More than one wife• Roman statesmen• Changed the Romans• Orator• (Page 5 Line 119)

St. Thomas

• One of Jesus’ disciples• Disbelieved Jesus’ resurrection• (Page 11 Line 317)

CONNECTION OF TALE TO NARRATOR

• Portrayed as a rough and not classy character in prologue– Drunk while telling story– Good story teller

• Uses many similes and metaphorseasy to follow along

• Knights tale was about romance and heroism– Miller’s Tale follows The Knight’s Tale

– mocking– “Nicholas and Absalom’s actions mock the heroism the knight

displays” (Patterson)• “The Miller’s Tale is an example of a fabliau, a short humorous

narrative genre that creates tension between bourgeois and working class” (Schwartz)

– Shows contrasts just as the Miller and the Knight would show through characters and real issues

– Low class = good story tellers

HUMOR

Characterizes Absolon's kiss, thus, not only as a shameful kiss, but a shameful kiss of a woman (Lomperis)

“…it constructs Absolon from a mass of assumptions about sexuality and gender, masculinity and bodily functions “(Walker)

MORAL/LESSON OF THE STORY

Young Love