Fabliau In The Miller's Tale

A fabliau is characterized as a, “short comic, often bawdy tale in verse that deals realistically and satirically with middle-class or lower-class characters. Fabliaux were often directed against marriage and against members of the clergy,” as stated by the Columbia Encyclopedia. [2] This genre of work began to flourish in France during the 12th and 13th century, where it then continued to move to the English in the 14th century. The fabliau was told by jongleurs that were professional storytellers. Many of these jongleurs were college students that use their earnings to pay off their debts. The average fabliau contains comedic hits at topics like religion, sanctity of marriage, and the treatment of women. The style of writing is simple,

The Miller’s Tale, which came right after The Knights tale, is about a carpenter (John), who has a hot young wife (Alisoun). John allows a clerk/student (Nicholas) to rent a room in their house, however this plan backfires on him. The clerk immediately begins to entice Alisoun to sleep with him. Eventually, Nicholas and Alisoun start an intimate relationship. Nicholas decides that he wants to spend the night instead of brief encounters, so he develops a plan. His plan was to tell John a flood was coming and they needed to sleep in individual boats. This plan worked and gave Alisoun and Nicholas the night alone, however Absolon who was also in love with Alisoun came to her window for a kiss. First, he kisses her butt and realizes this fact, then he goes to get a hot poker. When he comes back for another kiss Nicholas puts his butt out the window instead of Alison and gets a hot poker instead. This story is filled with fabliau characterizes, such as the love triangle between Alisoun and all her men along with the trickery of John and