THE MILLER

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THE MILLERS TALE

• DAN CALLAHAN, NICK CHRISTAIN
• ALEX JANKOWSKI, SEAN QUINN
• Miller Hosey
• Honors English 12 Period 6/7
• 10/31/11

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GENRE TYPE/DESCRIPTION

• Satires
• Mockery
• Verbal Irony
• Elegies
• Fantasy fiction
• Poetry
• Translations
• Allegories
• Parodies

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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!

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SETTING

• Oxford- one of the cities in England
• Mainly illustrated in and around the Carpenters
• 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)

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CHARACTERS
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John the Carpenter

• Craft and Wifeall 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)

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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)

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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)

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Alison

• Beautiful (Page 6 Line 127)
• Attraction of all the men
• Representation of the prize serves to mock and
  subvert the Knights chivalric culture
  (Patterson)
• Helps deceive John
• Kissed in the arse (Page 21, Line 626)

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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

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SYMBOLS?
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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

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MOTIFS
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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 characters actions

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THEMES?
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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

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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).
• Slycunning/secret meekpatient/tame
• Nicholas had just then let fly a fart as loud as
  it had been a thunderclap (698-699)

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Figurative Language cont.

• Absalom
• Curled was his hair, shining like gold (206).
• Says to Alison I have such love-longing that
  like a turtle-doves 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
  weasels was her body slim and small (125-126).
• And songs came shrilling from her pretty head as
  from a swallows sitting on a shed (149-150).
• Shrilling loud pitched and piercing sound
• Her forehead shone as bright as does the May
  (202).

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ALLUSIONS
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Saint Benedict and Paul

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

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Absalom

• Alluded to throughout the tale
• peaceful- contradiction
• Noted for his personal beauty
• And extraordinary profusion of the hair
• In his head (Sam)

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Noah

• Noahs 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)

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Pontius Pilate

• (Page 1, Line 16)
• The expression Pilate voys points to
• the 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 him
• To the narrator

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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)
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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)

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Cato

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

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St. Thomas

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

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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
• Millers Tale follows The Knights Tale
• mocking
• Nicholas and Absaloms actions mock the heroism
  the knight displays (Patterson)
• The Millers 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

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HUMOR
it constructs Absolon from a mass of
assumptions about sexuality and gender,
masculinity and bodily functions (Walker)
Characterizes Absolon's kiss, thus, not only as a
shameful kiss, but a shameful kiss of a woman
(Lomperis)
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MORAL/LESSON OF THE STORY
Young Love ?