Who Is The Antagonist In The Miller's Tale

On the surface, The Miller’s Tale seems to convey an obvious anti-feminist view of women. The main character, Nicholas, is the protagonist in this story, and suitably detailed. The reader learns of his occupation, a clerk, and that he knew the secrets of love and was “sly and ful privee” (Chaucer 93). Beyond his secretiveness, it is shown that he is interested in the dark arts, something not suitable to his profession, but that give insight into his personality. The readers can look at his actions and interpret the reasons behind them fairly easily. In turn, John the carpenter can be viewed as an antagonist. He is not given as much spotlight as Nicholas and is generally viewed in a less favorable light, despite being a seemingly nice guy. In “Chaucer’s The Miller’s Tale,” R.T. Lambdin describes John as “a God-fearing, hard-working, good man who loves and jealously guards his much younger wife.” These traits are certainly not bad to have, in general. Lambdin continues that he is “naïve and anti-intellectual, but he is not ‘ill-mannered.’” He does, after all, take the time to visit his sick boarder.

The readers are not told why she finds Absolon so repulsive compared to Nicholas or why she married someone so much older than her in the first place. Beyond her actual actions in the tale, all the readers are given is a very detailed summary of her appearance. Chaucer is able to spend 35 straight lines describing her slender and delicate body and even her shoes were laced high, but cannot tell us if she has any actual desires or any basic personality traits. In this time period, and in most time periods, a person’s inward disposition was much more important than the outward one. Chaucer, for example, spends much time discussing the Knight’s nature, then talks merely of Squire’s appearance. It is clear, then, that Alison is similarly seen as the less important character and more of another pretty