The Miller's Tale (thing)

After the Knight’s tale, which is universally deemed noble and worthy, the drunk Miller states that he will tell his story. Many of the other travelers try to dissuade him, saying his tale will be obscene due to his inebriation. None of them can stop him, however, and the Miller begins his tale. The Miller’s Tale is the story of a scholar tricking a carpenter and seducing his wife. In the beginning, we meet the three principal characters: the wily Scholar, the fairly dimwitted Carpenter, and his beautiful but unfaithful wife. The scholar is enamored of the carpenter’s wife, and while the carpenter is out of town he talks to her and seduces her. She is prudent, however, and insists on them waiting for a more opportune time to carry out their new-found lust. The carpenter, in a display of wit, hides in his room by himself for a few days. The carpenter is worried about him, and goes to his room to find him sitting upright. The scholar then convinces the carpenter that the second flood is nigh: he must build three wooden tubs and hang them from the rafters in order for him, his wife, and the scholar to survive. The carpenter goes home and tells his wife what the scholar related to him. She pretends to be frightened, and the carpenter is convinced: the tubs are built and stocked with food for the “journey.” Later, after the three are in their tubs and the carpenter is asleep, the scholar and the carpenter’s wife sneak off to bed. Unfortunately the local parish Clerk, who is likewise taken with the carpenter’s wife and who has been bothering her throughout the story, returns that night to ask for a kiss. The wife, playing a trick on the clerk, proffers her backside for him to kiss and in the dark, and the clerk doesn’t realize it until it is too late. Angry and seeking revenge, the clerk returns with a red-hot poker and asks for one last kiss. The scholar, eager to be in on the joke, offers his backside and is branded by the clerk. His subsequent screams wake the village, who hurry to investigate. When they arrive, the scholar tells them that the Carpenter had a stupid idea that the next flood was coming, and that he built the tubs to save himself. Everyone is so amused at the carpenter’s stupidity that no one believes his story, and the entire affair becomes a big joke.

This tale fits perfectly the form of a fabliau, being a tale of trickery and deception, as between the scholar and the carpenter (and the scholar and the clerk), as well as being a story of adultery, as between the scholar and the carpenter’s wife. Besides being only a fabliau, however, the story incorporates a good deal of humor, from the scholars dream to the clerk and his red-hot iron, to the carpenter’s fall and subsequent humiliation. The story, in fact, emphasizes the humor of the situation more so than the adultery and deception aspect. The tale has a high degree of absurdity, too, especially that the carpenter would accept the scholar’s dream as true. As an example of the practical joke, the story is excellent, redeeming it’s worst, slightly more obscene aspects. A theme for the story is hard to pin down, however, focusing primarily on the humour inherent in the story of adultery. Chaucer, or the Miller, perhaps wanted us to view the serious subject of adultery in a lighter sense, perhaps even to diminish it’s importance. All in all, the tale surpasses the reader’s expectations after the prologue to the story.