Literary Analysis of The Millers Tale and or The Wife of Baths Tale (The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer)

Literary Analysis of the Miller 's Tale

Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer is among the earliest extant materials found in English literature . The sheer range of subjects discussed in various tales calls for a special attention from the critics and readers alike . In the Miller 's Tale , the storyline is narrated by an inebriated miller in response to the Knight 's Tale , a more serious and dignified segment of Canterbury Tales as opposed to the miller 's grotesque and bawdy documentations . Several literary tools are used in the Miller 's Tale to

serve the humoristic purpose of the story the most important ones being satiric fabliau and crude humor . This essay is going to analyze the social and literary significance of this masterful work of prose , with occasional comparison with other relevant works

The Miller 's Tale is fundamentally based on the interactive methods of storytelling which was espoused in Canterbury Tales . The story is a fabliau , a bawdy , frequently blasphemous , comic tale about trick and counter-trick (Chaucer and Coote 103 ) After the knight is through with his story , the host Harry Bailey asks the Monk to enthrall them with another that would match , if not surpass , the Knight 's Tale . It is at this juncture that the drunken miller intervenes by claiming that he has a tale to requite the knight 's . Then what he tells is essentially subaltern and vulgar . While it is amusing to ponder over such a story riddled with mistaken and misidentified characters and situations...