FREE ESSAY ON MILLER'S TALE

MILLER'S TALE

Courtly Love in Chaucer and Marie de France In his The Miller's Tale Chaucer presents a
side of the courtly love tradition never seen before. His characters are average middle
class workers rather than elite nobility. There is an interesting comparison between the
Miller's characters and those in two of Marie de France's lais that share very close plot
lines. Instead of being idealized Chaucer's characters are gritty. Instead of being
involved in courtly love there is some evidence that the relationship between Alison and
Nicholas is one of lust. Chaucer's use of the lower class makes the absurdity of what
they are doing stand out. In the lais of Marie de France, Guigemare and Yonec, are built
on the same archetype which is the same as Chaucer's Miller's tale uses. Marie's lais can
give provide a set of ground rules for this archetype. The two lais share several similar
elements. They both contain the same three central characters, who possesses fundamental
similarities, the same beginning plot line and several of the same themes. The first
character shared by the two lais is the story's villain, the aged husband. He is a
powerful lord who is much older than his wife. Because he is conscious of this fact, he
worries constantly that his wife will betray him, so he locks her up. He is both the
least and most important figure in the story. He's important because without his presence
and actions the story could never take place. But he has very little actual interaction
with the other two more central characters. The husband in Yonec is never described as
meeting either his wife or her lover. In Guigemare the husband, wife and Guigemare are
only together when the two lovers are discovered. The figure of the beautiful, imprisoned
wife is the second central character. She is the quintessential damsel in distress,
beautiful, noble (and with the exception of her one true love) chaste. The third
character is the valiant lover who rescues the unhappy and imprisoned damsel. In both
Guigemare and Yonec this character is a knight, and like his lover, the damsel in
distress, he is the stereotypical knight in shining armor. He is described as being
afflicted by love, and says he will die without it. He will go to any extent for his true
love. As with characters both Guigemare and Yonec share a similar plot line. The young
wife is locked up by her jealous husband. Then by some magical means her lover is
transported to her. After some protestation from the woman, and some wooing from the
knight, the two become lovers, until they are discovered and separated. After this point
the two plots diverge. Also central to both stories is the idea that these extra-marital
affairs are not improper. In Guigemare, the lady's maid says to the knight: The man who
wishes to love my lady must keep her constantly in his thoughts and, if you remain
faithful to each other, the love between you will be right and proper. (pg. 49) Obviously
fidelity is important, but not forced fidelity. Love is more important than marriage in
these lais. It's also important to note the chastity of the lovers. There is no mention
of contact between the imprisoned wives and their husbands. In Yonec the Lord of Caerwent
takes his wife for the purpose of child bearing, but she is imprisoned for seven years
before meeting her lover and no children are evidenced from the text. Guigemare has never
been in love before he meets his true love. This gives the love and actions between the
pairs seem even more pure, and also makes it seem to be less sinful. Love is a powerful
force in both these stories. It is not only the driving force behind the character's
actions, but it also causes them physical affliction. Marie de France writes in
Guigemare: But love had now pierced him to the quick and his heart was greatly disturbed.
For the lady wounded him so deeply he had completely forgotten his homeland. . .The
knight remained alone, mournful and downcast. He did not yet realize the cause, but at
least he knew that, if he were not cured by the lady his death would be assured. (pg. 48)
To Guigemare at least love is the most important thing there is. This consideration is
even more striking by the fact that Guigemare either could not or would not fall in love
while in his own land. So those are the basic elements involved in the imprisoned wife
archetype used by Marie. In The Miller's Tale Chaucer uses same basic plot line, and
similar characters. One of the largest differences between the Chaucer's characters and
Marie's characters is their level of wealth and their position in society. This causes
them to be portrayed in a different manner than Marie's rich, noble characters. The first
of the three major characters is present largely unchanged. He is not of course a king or
lord, but John the carpenter is obviously a man of at least some amount of wealth,
evidenced by the fact that he has a house that is big enough that he can rent rooms from.
He is also more present than the jealous husband of Marie. He does not lock his wife up
in a tower and stay far away from her. Unlike the husbands in Marie's lais he still has
contact with his wife. The two sleep in the same bed (as we see when Absalom tries to
sing to Alison). John's level of jealousy is not as great as that of Marie's husbands.
When he awakens to hear Absalom singing to his wife he does nothing. And as Absalom
continues to try to woo John's wife away from him in his presence, he still does nothing.
The king in Yonec kills his wife's lover, in Guigemare he at first attempts to do the
same. He even allows a man, Nicholas, to be near to his wife. The only man allowed close
to Guigemare's lover is a priest who had lost his lower members. Alison, Chaucer's
imprisoned wife, is less of the ideal than her counterparts in Marie. Certainly she is
beautiful. But her is beauty is slightly flawed. She is graceful and slim like [a]
weasel. By comparing her with a weasel Chaucer makes Alison seem to be dirty and
untrustworthy. Morally the comparison between Alison and her counterparts in Marie is
more confusing. Chaucer describes her as having a wanton eye. But her protestation seems
to be more real, and Nicholas seems to have gone to farther lengths to make her his
lover. When Nicholas professes his love to her Chaucer describes her reaction as such:
[She] twisted her head away hard/ and said, 'I won't kiss you, on my faith;/ why let me
be,' she said, 'let be, Nicholas, or I'll cry Help! and alas!'' (pg. 155) Alison seems
quite adamantly opposed to becoming Nicholas' lover here, as opposed to the wife in
Yonec, who simply needs proof that her lover to be is Christian. Her refusals, and then
Nicholas only winning when he had pushed her so hard sounds, at least to the modern
reader, to be rape. But just lines later she swears a vow with Nicholas. The shifts made
by the women in Marie are not nearly so drastic. At no point in Guigemare or Yonec do you
get the feeling that the women will refuse either of their lovers. Their protests are
almost just for propriety sake, the medieval version of playing hard to get. But in
Alison's refusal there is no apparent support for her actions shortly thereafter.
Possibly the reason for Alison's shifting actions is due to Chaucer's image of women at
the time, as was argued against by Christine de Pisan. The figure of the rescuing lover
is divided into two parts by Chaucer. Pleasant Nicholas is the actual lover, but Absalom
is the stereotype of the courtly lover. Aside from the fact that he actually becomes her
lover Nicholas shares very little with the knights of Marie de France. He is not
especially handsome, being described as looking as meek as a maiden. Also unlike
Guigemare certainly he is not chaste, nor is this his first love. Chaucer writes: he knew
all about secret love and pleasurable consolations. (pg. 151) This makes the love between
Alison and Nicholas seem to be less pure. Instead of Alison being the only woman for him,
as is Guigemare's lover, she may just be another in a string of many. Absalom, on the
other hand, possesses many more of the qualities that one would expect that a lover in a
story about courtly love would have. He is described as being handsome, or at least well
groomed. He involves himself in what could be described as courtly pursuits such as
dancing (Chaucer says that he knew twenty different steps) and can play two instruments.
His attempts at winning her love are more traditionally romantic. He sings under her
window, sends her gifts and even money to try to earn her love. Like Marie's knights
Absalom is afflicted by love. Alison causes him to stay awake at night. But he is also a
little squeamish/ about farting and prim in speech. (pg. 157), not the most masculine of
characters. The Miller views John's marriage to Alison as a mistake. He says: People
should marry according to their condition,/ for youth and age are often at odds. (pg.
153) In considering what happens to the two lovers at the end of the story there is no
indication that Chaucer thought that what they were doing was wrong. It would seem that
if their actions where thought to be incorrect then they would have been discovered, and
some sort of misfortune would have resulted (to cite a more extreme case, the Jews in the
Prioresses Tale). But instead, of being punished they get away with their affair. Absalom
gets his revenge on Nicholas with a hot poker, but John the carpenter seems to be the
ultimate loser. Nicholas and Alison get away with their night of passion, and he's made
to look like a fool in front of the whole neighborhood. Class is the major difference
between the characters of Chaucer the Miller's Tale and Marie's lais. Marie's lovers are
idealized, what each knight and lady should strive for. Chaucer's lovers are dirty,
animal like and raucous. The Miller's Tale is a parody of the courtly love tradition. But
the fact that Chaucer uses the lower classes as his characters makes his story even more
absurd. Instead of being wise they are foolish. Sources Used Chaucer, Geoffrey The
Canterbury Tales trans. Kent & Constance Hieatt; Bantam 1964 de France, Marie The Lais of
Marie de France trans. Glyn Burgess & Keith Busby; Penguin 1986