By examining the different elements of humour in The Miller’s Tale, show how Chaucer makes the comic tale work on different levels.
The principal reason for the vast difference in style of humour in The Miller’s Tale is derived from the fact that there was such a vast audience that Chaucer was catering for when writing these tales. There would have been great difference in the levels of intellect in the audience, so Chaucer needed to present a large degree of difference in the humour in order to appeal to the different types of audience.
Essentially, there are two platforms from which the varying degrees of humour are delivered, and each caters for a different type of audience. One is Chaucer, the intellectual with a higher level of humour who presents the tale to us, and the Miller, the “janglere” and “goliardeys” who tells us the tale. We know there is a distinct difference between the two and the type of humour they present to us from when Chaucer sets himself apart from the Miller and his tale in The Miller’s Prologue, and apologises for what is to be said, “Aviseth yow, and put me out of blame; And eek men shal nat maken ernest of game.” It is thus obvious to the audience that the tale will contain varying types of humour, catering for its varied audience.
There is the higher level humour presented to us through Chaucer’s presentation of the tale, and one example of this more intellectual humour is the literary parody in which form The Miller’s Tale is presented to us. The Miller’s Tale parodies the theme of courtly love, as it imitates generic conventions of a typical courtly love tale (such as its predecessor The Knight’s Tale). For example there is the whole mockery of the presentation of Alison, who would typically be the courtly lady, but through the description she is presented more like a country wench, the description of her is far from a chaste, virginal one we would expect, “She was a primerole, a piggesnie, For any lord to leggen in his bedde, Or yet for any good yeman to wedde.” There is also the example of Absolon and his ridiculous portrayal as a courtly lover vowing for the lady, although he would be better suited as the heroine! This is shown through the ridiculous portrayal of him, where he is given qualities such as, “Crul was his heer, and as the gold it shoon,” “his eyen greye as goos,” and “he song som time a loud quinible.” These qualities would be more apt to that of a courtly heroine, and the general nonsensical portrait of him as a courtly gentleman is a parody in itself. These literary parodies would only been appreciated by more intellectual audience, as it relies on certain previous knowledge of the generic conventions of courtly love tales and the humour is derived from ridiculing them.
