The Millers Tale Essays

The Millers Tale Essays The Millers Tale Essay The Millers Tale Essay Firstly we the audience have to understand that Chaucer is both the writer of the tale but also a member of the pilgrimage who is relaying the stories told to him on the journey. Pilgrimage was popular at the time, a long journey taken to a Holy place in order to cleanse you from sins. I think The first Step is Admitting your an Alcoholic says: Chaucer may have written them partly to amuse us but also as a way of displaying his critical views of the church at the time. The Miller, a bawdy man, tells the Millers Tale and is apparently drunk at the time. He is told thou art a fool not possibly able to tell a tale in such a state but he does. The tale is about a carpenter who is made a cokewold of fool of by his wife which annoys a fellow pilgrim the Reeve as he was once a carpenter and believes the tale to be poking fun at him. However the Miller tells his audience not to take offence or judge what he says for he means no harm by it. It is meant to be a joke and if he misspeke or seye anything bad, they should blame it on the Southwerk ale. This could be a clear indication to us that Chaucer intends himself for this tale to be a joke and wishes to amuse us. The reason it could be considered a moral tale is because some of its characters pay for their actions later in the play. The main characters are John the carpenter, his wife Alison and Nicholas an oxford scholar who is staying in Johns home. John is quite an old man and has been criticised for marrying a young beautiful woman who he t There is no real moral dilemma in this itself because it is considered socially acceptable for a man to marry a younger woman but it does cause problems later. Perhaps Johns punishment for being jealous is his wife committing adultery although I am not sure about this, as John does not finds this out. His jealousy added to the excitement and danger of Alison and Nicholas trying to fool him. Nicholas is also known as hende Nicholas. The word hende has a double meaning here. It means that he is courteous and debonair and also skilful as we see when he delivers an elaborate story to fool John into following his commands. It is also intends to suggest he is handy or good with his hands. This adds to the comical value of the play for the audience when he used his hands to grab at Alison. This is where we can again look at whether the millers tale is a moral one. Another man interested in Alison is Absalon. He comes to her window one night when she and Nicholas are in bed together, trying to court her. He a more chivalrous approach in love calling her faire brid, my sweet cinamone then bends to his knees to beg for a kiss. Cruelly Alison sticks her bottom out of the window and Absalon with his mouth he kiste her naked ers. This act of cruelty from Alison does not get punished during the play and is a clear argument against it being a moral tale. However another way it can be seen as is Absalons scourge for chasing a married woman.