It is obvious from the beginning of the text that Alisoun has no respect for the pledge she made to John in front of God because as soon as Alisoun becomes bored of him, along comes another man ready to fill his shoes. She so readily swears her new, supposedly romantic love for Nicholas, “by Seint Thomas of Kent,” who was a very important Saint as his gravestone was the ultimate destination for the pilgrims on their journey to Canterbury. Alisoun cannot see how morally blind she is being, she truly believes that swearing her love on something so important shows Nicholas her true feelings. However, from the readers point of view all it does is confirm how selfish Alisoun is and how she doesn’t consider the feelings of her husband.
Alisoun is a young, pretty woman who has chosen to marry an older, richer man, although we can only guess as to why. It could be due to the fact that in this period of history the death rate of children was very high, due to poor living conditions and lack of medicine. Women were best to conceive their children when they were younger so that the baby stood a greater chance of survival. Thus an era of senex amans, literally ‘old man lover’ began. This meant that older men were marrying younger wives to ensure that an heir would be produced.
Consequently throughout the poem, we see that Chaucer uses the technique of mal marié, literally ‘badly married’ to show how much of a mismatch Alisoun and John really are. This term is based on the idea that the older man is sexually incompetent and cannot satisfy his younger wife, therefore virtually locking her away to prevent prying eyes from seeing her.
This combination has brought about great jealously on John’s part, as he knows that Alisoun could quite easily become drawn to another man. John, “heeld hire narwe in cage,” because of this fear and hoped that no one would take an interest in his wife. For she was, “likerous,” and, “ful smale ypulled,” which would be tempting for any man. So good looking and young she was, as well as being, “a primerole, a piggesnie,” which describes how lively a character Alisoun was through the crisp sounding letters in both the words.
John has obviously not made a very wise choice in Alisoun, as, “man sholde wedde his similitude,” meaning that John should have married someone who was older and his equal. In a way, this phrase is inadvertently saying to the reader that Alisoun is too pretty to be married to a mere carpenter. Summing up what Alisoun is really like, Chaucer says that she is something, “For any lord to leggen in his bedde, Or yet for any good yeman to wedde.” This means that someone of social standing such as John would look to make her his wife, but someone who is higher up in society would simply want to take her to bed.
We must remember that at this time in history there had been the Black Death, which had killed so many people. It had wiped out many people, leaving a gap in society to form a new social class. This class is the same one John lies in, the growing middle class, which earns its wealth through trade and craftsmanship. John was a carpenter and maybe for the first time, beginning to see a really reward for his profession. Men like John could afford to marry pretty, young girls like Alisoun and maybe more importantly young, pretty girls like Alisoun would now consider marry someone like John. John would now have a considerable amount of money, which could have drawn Alisoun to him. For in her description we see that she wears clothes, which are, “broiden al bifoore,” which indicates that John must have some money if her clothes are richly embroidered. Maybe their marriage is based on money.
Although love and lust are completely separate issues altogether, I believe that in a relationship there must be both for it to work. Without love there is simply sex, and without lust, there is no physical attraction. However, for Alisoun and John their marriage is certainly lacking in one or maybe even both these thing. I think that, of the two, the only one who even comes close to love for the other is John. When Nicholas talks about the flood that will soon approach, all John can think about is, “Allas, my wyf, And shal she drenche?” John is not worried about his own life, but that of his wife’s, which in my mind shows great compassion and affection. This may not be true love as we know it, but it is something close.
Alisoun shows no true love towards John. Although she may claim that she loves him, “Go, deere spouse,” when John tells her of his plans to save them, but we know that Alisoun is merely telling John what he wants to hear. As for any form of lust between the married couple there seems to be none. By playing the old man lover, John may lust for Alisoun, but is unable to show this through any sexual actions, while Alisoun displays only lust for Nicholas. Alisoun may have said, “lat be,” to Nicholas when he first made his advances towards her, but never did she tell him that she couldn’t because she was a married woman.
It is not just the actions of Alisoun and John that show us how, for some, marriage has little or no meaning. Absolon, a man of the clergy makes advances towards Alisoun, knowing full well that she is a married woman. “Thanne kisse me, “ says Absolon, after Alisoun says that, “I love another.” Even a kiss is a form of cheating, something, which as a member of the clergy, Absolon should respect. In the eyes of the church cheating is considered a sin, a sin on both the part of the married person and the other one. Absolon should not, “caste…a lovely look on hem,” when he is collecting money in Church, but he still does. Nicholas too, treats Alisoun as an object of desire, rather than a married woman. He shows no respect for their marriage when he has sex with Alisoun under the same roof as John, but continues to cokewold him.
Throughout ‘The Miller’s Tale’ we see how marriage is abused and manipulated to people’s advantage. I feel that Chaucer is making the reader deliberately aware of how easy it is to cokewold someone and how quickly you can caught in a trap where there is no escape, just like John. If there’s one thing you should take on board from this poem its that, “man sholde wedde his similitude.”