From A Close Examination Of The Introductory Portraits Of The Knight and The Miller In The General Prologue to the 'Canterbury Tales,' Show How Chaucer Presents These Two Figures

Authors Avatar

Lucy Deeley

                                                                   

From A Close Examination Of The Introductory Portraits

Of The Knight and The Miller In The General Prologue to the

 ‘Canterbury Tales,’ Show How Chaucer Presents These Two Figures

The Knight and the Miller both have completely different roles and status in medieval

society. The Knight would be an educated member of society, whereas the Miller would be nearer the bottom of the social spectrum. The type of education each would have had is reflected in the language Chaucer uses in each portrait. In the Knights prologue Chaucer uses longer words and longer sentences. Chaucer lists all the battles the Knights has been in, and the long sentences used help to show the reader that the Knight is educated. In the Millers prologue shorter sentences and shorter words are used which infers that the Miller is uneducated. ‘A swerd and bokeler bar he by his side’ The two characters are defined by their role in society in the 14th century.

Join now!

        The Knight and the Miller are complete opposites, not only in social status but also in terms of morals and values. The description of the Knight focuses on his deeds rather than his personality or physical appearance. This reflects the Knights character, that he is not bothered by how he looks to go on the pilgrimage ‘All besmotered with his habergeon, for he was late y-come from his voyage.’ This shows that the Knight is modest and doesn’t mind how he looks when he’s on the pilgrimage. The Miller on the other hand wears bold colours and seems like he ...

This is a preview of the whole essay