The Miller, this essay is about the book, The Canterbury Tales, by Geoffery Chaucer. The Miller is a certain character and this essay tells of his part in the book.

Essay by Jes8668High School, 12th gradeA, July 2002

download word file, 3 pages 3.3

Geoffrey Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales, a collection of stories in a frame story, between 1387 and 1400. It is the story of a group of thirty people who travel as pilgrims to Canterbury (England). The pilgrims, who come from all layers of society, tell stories to each other to kill time while they travel to Canterbury. If the Prologue is trusted, Chaucer intended that each pilgrim should tell two tales on the way to Canterbury and two tales on the way back. He never finished his enormous project and even the completed tales were not finally revised. Scholars are uncertain about the order of the tales. As the printing press had yet to be invented when Chaucer wrote his works, The Canterbury Tales has been passed down in several handwritten manuscripts. Among all of the tales, the Miller sticks out the most. The Miller not only is a drunk but deceitful in many ways, to tell his story he ruins the Host's tale, enjoys overturning all conventions, and boasts about his drunken rampages.

Short-shouldered, broad, and thick, the Miller has a wart on his nose and a big mouth, both literally and figuratively. As described in the prologue he is a great stout fellow with big brawn and bone. His beard was red, like any soy or fox, and his nostril was black as they were wide. His mouth was mighty just like a furnace door. Last of all his hand was a master at stealing grain. During his story he threatens the Host's notion of propriety when he drunkenly insists on telling the second tale. Indeed, the Miller seems to enjoy overturning all conventions--he ruins the Host's carefully planned story-telling order, he rips doors off hinges, and he tells a tale that is somewhat blasphemous and...