Taking together the portrait of the Miller in the 'General Prologue' with the framing material for the 'Tale', show how Chaucer creates a vivid sense of the teller. What is the likely effect on the reader?

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Joanna Lowe        Page         Mrs Edwards

English Literature

The Miller’s Tale – Chaucer

Taking together the portrait of the Miller in the ‘General Prologue’ with the framing material for the ‘Tale’, show how Chaucer creates a vivid sense of the teller. What is the likely effect on the reader?

Chaucer’s ‘Canterbury Tales’, a collection of tales told by pilgrims on a pilgrimage to Canterbury in the 14th Century, are famous not only for their portrayal of different characters within society and the humour that they provoke, but also for the fact that they were one of the first pieces of work to be written in Middle English. The Miller is one of the most memorable characters out of the pilgrims due to him drunkenly arguing to tell his tale after the Knight and also because of the content of his story, which contains a mixture of humour, realism and vulgarity.

From his description in the ‘General Prologue’, the Miller appears to be a character of commanding physical presence, a large man who revels in such displays of strength as wrestling matches and breaking down doors “at a renning with his heed.” Chaucer describes him as being a “stout carl” and big in both brawn and bones. The Miller is distinguished as wearing a white coat with a blue hood and having “a swerd and bokelar bar by his side”. He is said to have a huge beard, as red in colour “as any sowe or fox”, a vast mouth that’s likened to a size of a furnace, wide, black nostrils, and a conspicuous wart on the tip of his nose, crowned by a mass of hairs compared in colour to the hairs of a sow’s ears. Depicted as being a “janglere”, someone who talks constantly, and a foul-mouthed teller of disreputable tales, Chaucer goes on to account the typical trait of a miller in 14th century society. Chaucer tells of how the Miller is capable of “stelen corn” and charging three times the price, as well as having “a thombe of gold”, however, although acquainted with the usual tricks of his trade, the Miller is also said to be an able bagpipe-player, whose piping accompanies the pilgrims’ departure from London.

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The fact that the description of the Miller is one of the last in the ‘General Prologue’ causes the reader to recognise that the Miller was of a low social class. As social status was everything in the 14th century, due to the reigning feudal system of the time, it can be realised that the Miller’s position towards the end of the list of pilgrims indicates his place in the lower ranks of the social hierarchy. The detailed description accounted by Chaucer provides the reader with a clear visual image of the Miller, allowing his character to become more realistic. ...

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