Compare And Contrast The Knight's Tale And The Millers Tale

The Knight’s Tale and The Miller’s Tale are both told by pilgrims on their way to Canterbury. Although the two stories are set in the same time period and have a similar theme, they each have a distinctive tone. The Knight tells a romantic story that reflects his higher social class during the era in which he lives. The Miller tells a story in which lust, not love, is the guiding motive for the characters. The Miller is in fact drunk when he tells his story, so the Miller’s Tale contains lots of dirty jokes and complicated tricks. The Miller’s tale mirrors the Knight’s tale in a lot of ways. Both of the stories contain a love triangle.

In The Knight’s Tale, Arcite and Palamon are two knights who are badly wounded but still alive. They are found and imprisoned for life. One morning, Palamon looks out the window and spots Emelye walking around the garden and falls in love with her. Arcite is also quite in love. The two knights swore never to let the love a lady come between them, but this is exactly what happens. In The Knights Tale, woman are treated like goddesses. If the Knight’s tale was a movie it would be rated PG. This tale contains no physical contact.

In The Miller’s Tale, one of the characters named

Allison is 18 years old. She is married to a carpenter named John who is at least 30 years older than her. John is foolish and has a student living with them named Nicholas. Nicholas woos Allison and they make a plan to sleep with each other. The vain parish clerk Absolom also wants to sleep with Alison, but she rejects his advances. Nicholas pretends that a flood twice the size of Noah’s flood is going to come and drown them all, and he convinces the carpenter that the carpenter, Alison, and Nicholas can save themselves by sleeping in tubs. Eventually, several things go wrong and everyone besides Allison gets punished. The Miller’s Tale, is portraying a theme that that woman will get away with anything usually just because there women.
I believe that Chaucer placed The Knight’s Tale and The Miller’s Tale together because the Miller answered the Knights story.

“I have a noble story in my store, with which I will requite the good knight’s tale” ( pg. 83 Selected Canterbury Tales). Since the knight told a story in a more gentlemanly fashion, the drunk miller answered with an unchivalrous story. I also think Chaucer placed them together because of social class. The first story is told by a Knight who is a nobleman in the upperclass. The Knight is a respectable man who has fought in many places and won. Following, is the Miller who is in the lower working class. Millers were considered to be cheaters and liars. I believe Chaucer placed them in this order because they are complete

opposites.