Revenge in The Canterbury Tales

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After kissing one’s arse; or being harassed for money; or having someone demoralize another’s occupation, according to “The Miller’s Tale”, “The Friar’s Tale”, and the tension between The Summoner and The Miller, one might have the motive to cause harm to those who hurt them. This shows the level of maturity in the characters, as well as demonstrating human feelings such as hurt, anger, and animosity. In The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer illustrates the pilgrims and characters within their stories as strong, clever, and sometimes even childish. They are often quick to react with revenge to solve their problems, instead of thinking about their actions. However, even if revenge does work to their advantage, it’s not always the most morally correct way for them to fix their troubles.
The characters within the Canterbury Tales love to seek revenge when they do not get their way; they often handle their problems in a rash manner. In “The Miller’s Tale”, Absalon was not able to get a kiss from Alison, instead of kissing her mouth, he “Put up his mouth and kissed her naked arse” (Chaucer 103). Absalon immediately knew something was wrong when he heard Alison’s lover, Nicholas the Spark, inside the window; therefore, he yelled out to them both, “I’ll pay you back for it!” (Chaucer 103). Rather than passing it off as a joke, Absalon took it the wrong way and decided to bring back a coulter to stab one of them with. When Absalon arrived back at the window, Nicholas stuck his arse out the window as a joke and Absalon “with a thump / He smote him in the middle of the rump.” (Chaucer 105). Absalon took his reaction a little far, considering Alison and Nicholas were only playing a small prank on him. “The Reeve’s Tale” shows evidenc...

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...roceed, assuring The Friar he’d “pay him back, by God!” (Chaucer 293) and “strike him dumb!” (Chaucer 293). After “The Friar’s Tale” came to a close, The Summoner “rose in wrath against the Friar” (Chaucer 303) and demanded the host to let him “refute him” (Chaucer 303) by telling an equally degrading story of about a friar. In “The Wife of Bath’s Prologue”, her fifth husband abuses her; at one point, she said that “he smote me on the head, / And down I fell upon the floor for dead” (Chaucer 279). When she woke up she rose to “smote him on the cheek” (Chaucer 280) and he vowed to never hit her again. The pilgrims are very strong and self-aware; they were able to use those qualities on people who posed a threat or people who disrespected them, to get revenge.

Works Cited

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Trans. Nevill Coghill. London: Penguin, 2003. Print.

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