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Comparison of The Knight’s Tale and The Miller’s Tale in Canterbury Tales
Medieval English Literature period was a period that included themes such as love, chivalry, betrayal, deception and many elements such as comic and tragic elements, social issues, and the dominance of religion. While writing Canterbury Tales, the most important work of medieval literature, Chaucer aimed to transfer different classes of society to the reader and to make criticisms on some points. The aim of this essay is to examine the first two of the tales told in Canterbury Tales in terms of themes, characters, narrators, plots and most importantly their genres. Firstly, I will talk about the narrators of the two tales and therefore the social class differences of their characters. I will then analyze the two tales from the perspective of Aristotle in terms of elements of comedy and tragedy, and finally, I will make comparisons by dealing with the plot and the themes used in both.
There are clearly noticeable differences between characters and therewithal between narrators. There is a certain class difference between The Miller and The Knight; one is from lower and the other one is from upper class. Since they reflect separate classes in society, they are different in terms of physical appearance, humors, manners and behaviors. For instance The Miller’s physical appearance is described as: “His berd as any sowe or fox was reed”(554th line, General Prologue) With the redness in physical appearance we have bad expression about The Miller but The Knight is described in the very beginning of his description as: “To riden out, he loved chivalrie, - Trouthe and honour, fredom and curteisie.” (45th, 46th lines, General Prologue) We remember that The Miller intervenes and takes some other characters’ turn. It is possible to say that there is a reason for The Miller’s intervention. This reason is showing clear difference of common people and aristocracy.
Since we can't expect a noble story from someone in lower class, it is possible to say that the characters reflect their narrators in the tales. Speaking the characters, we see noble, virtuous characters in The Knight's tale, while we see dishonorable, shameful characters in The Miller's tale. For instance, while Nicholas is adultery, Palamon is willing to die for his pure love. For this reason, we see different endings such as an honorable death of Arcite and Palamon marrying his beloved woman in The Knight’s tale, but at the end of The Miller's tale, the characters are seen in shameful, undignified situations. In the tales, two other characters that are quite opposite to each other are Emelye and Alisoun. In both tales, men struggle to get these female characters. On one hand, Emelye is a virtuous, modest, virgin and pure character, while Alisoun is a dishonorable character who cheats on her husband, makes adultery. Exaggerations are also used when depicting Emelye's divine beauty in The Knight’s lines: “Hir yelow heer was broyded in a tresse, - Bihynde hir bak, a yerde long, I gesse,” (191st and 192nd lines, The Knight’s Tale) However, we can say that these two women are so attractive that men struggle to get their loves in both tales. But the main difference is as a lower class character, Alisoun is narrated with her physical beauty and she is described as sexually desirable. On the other side, Emelye is King Theseus’ sister-in-law and her inner beauty and physical beauty are described as she is a goddess.
From the beginning, we see that tragedies, in which a hero’s downfall and realizing are depicted, are written for upper class, bourgeoisie. For example Theseus’, Hercules’, Oedipus’ tragedies were all addressing to the upper class of ancient Greece. At the same time we know that Dionysus’ comedies were addressing to common people and Dionysus is known by his closeness with common people. The Knight’s tale also includes tragic elements such as heroism, courtly love etc. and tragic characters. Palamon is the hero of the tale as he battles for his beloved one and Arcite is antagonist who ends up with dead. On the other hand, comedies are written for lower class, and the foolish characters, trickery are the comic elements of comedy. The Miller’s tale is more like an example of comedy genre because according to Aristotle, “The same distinction marks off Tragedy from Comedy; for Comedy aims at representing men as worse, Tragedy as better than in actual life.” (Aristotle, The Poetics, Book Ten) As we already said about the class difference, characters’ social statues are compared by Chaucer. The reason of this difference is comparing of comedy and tragedy performed by two different classes.
Lastly the themes that used in both tales are different in some ways. Love theme exists in both tales, but in different ways. Physical love vs. spiritual love is depicted in the tales. While we see pure and courtly love in The Knight's tale, we encounter the silly love triangle and sexual desire in The Miller's tale. In both, two men struggle to one woman. In The Knight's tale we see love for inner beauty, while in the other tale we see love for physical beauty of Alisoun. Arcite compares Emelye with Aphrodite by saying: “But Venus is it, soothly as I gesse." (244th line, The Knight’s Tale) While we read Emelye with her purely beauty, on the other hand, Nicholas and Alisoun’s bed scene makes it clear that there is no pureness of her. We can see this impurity when narrator says this: “Withouten wordes mo they goon to bedde,.”(542nd line, The Miller’s Tale) Another very similar theme is the inevitability of fate. This theme was used quite frequently in ancient tragedies. So we can see the role of fate in The Knight’s tale in which everyone's wishes are fulfilled by Gods and Goddesses—Arcite wins the battle, and Palamon marries with Emelye. On the other hand, in the tale of The Miller, the characters get their share from the circle of destiny, with Absolon being in shame and Nicholas's behind burning. Chaucer secretly states that love, relationships, marriages and women’s role are need to be compared by the reader according to two different social classes.
Consequently, although both tales have same themes, characters’ different manners and humors clearly separate them from each other. The Knight and The Miller are quite different. Especially their social class difference makes their tales different in terms of themes, plot and used settings. I also analyzed the tales from Aristotle’s perspective and said that in order to show the clear difference in society Chaucer used some comic and tragic elements in the tales. These two tales and others are written for a reason; Chaucer aimed at making the public aware by producing such a critical and rich work even in a dark period such as the medieval period that didn’t experience enlightenment.
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