Millers Tale Short Composition
In The Canterbury Tales, The Millers Tale is a story of slapstick humor, crude jokes, trickery, and lust. These characteristics embody the Fabliau style of writing. Chaucer touched upon several styles of writing in The Canterbury Tales, Fabliau included. Whats interesting about Chaucers plethora of writing styles is the order in which he chose to place them. His choice to put the crude Millers Tale directly after the honorable and chivalrous Knights Tale is notable. There are many possibilities as to what his intentions were with this placement, but its clear that he at least wanted to compare and contrast the two stories. Chaucer placed the Millers Tale directly following the Knights Tale to highlight the absurd contrast between the romantic style of writing and the fabliau style of writing, and also to show the few similarities. The Millers tale is a perfect example of fabliau writing. It is obscene and ludicrous in nature, while humiliating gullible authority figures. In the same manner, The Knights tale is impeccable as an example of romantic medieval writing. Chaucer crafts the tale, intertwining motifs of chivalry and lack of realism into a plotline involving the adventures of two knights in their quest to gain the affection of the woman of their dreams, Emily. Chaucer is quite obviously a master of these two genres. The two stories are so contrasting that one can only suspect that he was attempting to create a distinction between his two creations and make the audience think. I suspect that this decision was an attempt to startle the reader. Chaucer obviously has a lovely sense of humor, so this conclusion would make much sense.
Vast differences aside, both of these stories center around a woman. Multiple men battle for her affection, and she ends up one of the winners. For instance, in the Knights Tale, Emily is the focus of Arcite and Palamons affections. They are so in love with her that they are willing to fight to the death over her. In Acrites final speech, he speaks to Emily, praising Pamalon, And should you ever choose to be a wife,/ Forget not Palamon, that great-hearted man.(page 78). This statement is a perfect example of the honor and sportsmanship that every knight was expected to possess. Arcites last words were , MercyEmily!(page 78) The devotion he displays for her is beautiful. The Millers tale, on the other hand, is somewhat devoid of romance and most definitely lacking any honor at all. Lust is a key factor in the plot; although several men are fighting for her attention, Alison does not extract a bit of chivalry from them. She is totally in control of the plotline, whereas Emily was merely a trophy for the knights to battle over. Emily did not even speak over the course of the story. Alison was a ferocious woman and made the men grovel for her affection. Chaucer is most definitely playing with the readers mind by placing two distinctly dissimilar stories next to each other. He probably wanted to spark our inspiration and make us think. This fellow certainly had our best intentions in mind.
