The Miller Parodies of the Knight's Tale

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The Miller Parodies of the Knight's Tale

The miller parodies the Knight’s Tale in several different ways. He

cleverly achieves this through his description of the characters, the

style in which the story is told and the way in which the characters

conduct themselves in the tale.

The style in which the miller begins his tale is similar to the style

in which the Knight begins his tale. The style used is fairy tale

like, as the miller starts his story with-‘once upon a time.’ The

miller did this deliberately to mock and parody the Knight’s Tale.

The Knight’s scrupulous idealism presents a stark contrast to the

miller’s coarse parody of idealistic and romantic valour. Similarly

framed by a love triangle, the miller employs the same structure as

the Knight. The Knight’s tale involves Arcite and Palamon who are

cousins who both fall in love with Emily. Likewise, the miller’s tale

involves a love triangle which is between Alison, Nicholas who is an

astrology student and Absolon who is a parish clerk.

The suitors in the two tales articulate their love

characteristically. Arcite pines away in prison for Emily, ‘before me,

sorweful, wrecched creature, out of this prisoun help that we may

scapen and if so be my destynee be shapen by eterne word to dyen

inprisoun.’ This suggests that he would rather die than not be near

Emily. Similarly, Nick speaks like a courtly lover when he woos

Alison. He states ‘lemman, love me al atones, or I wol dyen, also God

me save!’ He is saying that Alison must love him immediately or else

he will die. Here, the miller is mocking the courtly love procedure.

Unlike Arcite and Palamon who woo Emily over a...

... middle of paper ...

... simile which is clearly chosen to stress

her sexual attractiveness.

However, Emily is portrayed as meek, fresh, pure and gentle. She is

fairer than the ‘lylie upon his stalke grene’ and ‘fressher than the

may with floures newe.’ This accentuates her purity and innocnece.

Equally, Alison is compared to a flower-‘primerole.’ Primrose is a

flower that ripens early in Spring. This connote that Alison is fully

developed yet of a young age.

Alison is clothed in silk, which is an expensive material that is not

commonly worn by carpenter’s wives. Silk was used for the embroidery

on Alison’s smock, headband and for the tassels on her purse. These

references to the richest and smoothest materials hint at the

attractive body underneath.

All in all, the miller is very successful in parodying the Knight’s

tale.

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