Comparing The Miller's Tale and The Reve's Tale

Similarities in The Miller's Tale and The Reve's Tale

"The Miller's Tale" and "The Reve's Tale" from The Canterbury Tales

are very closely related. They both deal with the relationship between a

jealous man, his wife, and a young scholar(s), and they both are immoral

stories that contain sex and violence. This proves that the Miller and the

Reeve are two very corrupt individuals. However, these tales also share

some differences. For instance, the main character in "The Reeve's Tale" is

a Miller, while the main character in "The Miller's Tale" is a carpenter

(which was the Reeve's profession), and both tales are different in the way

the Miller and the Reeve are portrayed. Again the differences reflect the

dishonesty of the tale's author.

The two tales share the relationship between a jealous man, his

wife, and a young scholar. In "The Miller's Tale" the scholar Nicholas is a

"close and shy" (89) person who has a talent for "making love in secret"

(89). His talent is illustrated when he turns his eye to the Carpenter's

wife and makes love with her. The situation is very similar to "The Reeve's

Tale." In that tale the Miller lets John and Alan, two scholars, who lost

their horse from the Miller's own doing, stay at his house. However, since

the two boys are "Headstrong...and eager for a joke" (110), Alan proceeds to

rape the Miller's daughter, while John sleeps with the Miller's wife. It is

apparent that these situations are very similar, in that the scholars are

having adulterous sexual intercourse with both the Carpenter's and the

Miller's wives. This similarity shows how the Miller and the Reeve are

preoccupied w...

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...stories when their only intention is to put another

individual down. The intentions will remain the same only the way the story

is told, and the language will change.

Works Cited

Arrathoon, Leigh A. "The Miller's Tale," Chaucer and the Craft of Fiction. Ed. Leigh A. Arrathoon, Rochester, Michigan: Solaris Press, Inc. 1986. 241-318

Beidler, Peter G. "Chaucer's Tales" Chaucer Review Vol: 34, Issue: 4. April 01, 2000. 388-397

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales: Riverside Chaucer Third Edition. Ed. Larry D. Benson. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,1987. 3-328 Secondary

Taavitsainen, Irma. "Personality and styles of Affect in the Canterbury Tales" Chaucer in Perspective. Ed. Geoffrey Lester.Midsomer North, Bath: Sheffield Academic Press Ltd. 1999. 218-232

White, Annie "Chaucer's 'The Reve's Tale,'" 20 Jan. 2001.