The Miller's tale - insults

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        In the battle between Chaucer's Miller and Chaucer's Reeve, the Reeve succeeds in insulting the Miller more than the Miller insulted the Reeve. The Miller's tale is more of a comedy, as opposed to being a tale of insults such as the Reeve's tale. In the Miller's tale he portrays the Reeve as being oblivious to everything around him, while in the Reeve's tale the Miller is aware of all that is happening and continues to be fooled. A drunken fool tells the Miller's tale, so it is not as elaborate as the Reeve's tale and doesn't contain as many offensive comments. In the Miller's tale the Reeve's wife is having relations with one of the younger men in town, while in the Reeve's tale both the Miller's daughter and wife are having relations with the men in town.

        In the Miller’s tale the Miller’s main goal was to make fun of the Reeve and not be too serious. In the Miller’s tale he uses basic humor in order to insult the Reeve. In response to the Miller’s tale the Reeve is angry, and does a much better job of insulting the Miller. The Reeve had a slight advantage in this battle of tales because he is telling his tale in response to the Miller, therefore he knows what he has to say in order to offend the Miller more than the Miller offended him. The Miller does portray the Reeve as a fool in his tale, but his story contains more jokes. “Absalon started wiping his mouth dry. Dark as the night as pitch, as black as coal, and at the window out she put her hole, and Absalon, so fortune framed the farce, put up his mouth and kissed her naked arse.”(103) Here the Miller is trying to make his audience laugh with a joke about the carpenter’s wife, when she makes the desperate Absalon kiss her “arse” in the pitch black night. The Reeve’s story does contain some humor, but it is mostly a string of insults toward the Miller. The Reeve’s anger is expressed in the prologue when he addresses the audience. “By y’r leave, I’ll pay him back before I’ve done in his own filthy words, you may expec’. I hope to God he breaks his bloody neck.”(108) Before his story the Reeve announces to the audience that he is furious at the Miller, and this foreshadows all of the mockery towards the Miller in his tale.

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        In the Miller’s tale the carpenter, who is portraying the Reeve, is oblivious to all the events that are happening around him. His wife, Alison, is having relations with one of the local younger men and he has no clue. He is tricked into believing that there will actually be a flood in his town and he must prepare for it. “That Monday next, a quarter way through night, rain is to fall in torrents, such a scud it will be twice as bad as Noah’s Flood.”(97) This is a crazy idea and the Miller is portraying the Reeve as ...

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