A Dream is Kind of a Wish Your Heart Makes

After the discussion we had today in class, I definitely think that viewing this story as kind of the Disney revamp version of Orpheus is the way to go. Even though there is some scary stuff in there (like there is in most Disney movies, let’s be real), the ending is a straight-up crazy happy fairytale. It takes the original Orpheus story and tones down all the super intense stuff, adds in a little heartache, but then comes at you with a comically happy ending that feels just a little too happy.

I feel like the comparison of the underworld to the fairy garden was really interesting, especially in what it can say about our own ideas of goodness and evil. At first glance, it seems like going to the fairy garden would obviously be the thing to do – I mean, even if there is some evil, at least it isn’t an ugly underworld. But when you actually start to think about it more, it’s easy to see that while the underworld is, well, the underworld, the fairy garden clearly seems to have more evil in it, at least in the way that it disguises itself as a paradise.

Reading this story, I was reminded of the early Disney cartoon The Goddess of Spring, which came out in the 1930s and has vivid images of a cheery garden, and then of course the underworld (and a pretty weird version of the devil in my opinion). The more I think about it, the more it is clear that that cartoon clearly has connections to this story. I haven’t watched the short in a while, but I think watching it and comparing it to my earlier comment about this whole story being like a Disney remake would be a super cool thing to do.

Moral of the story is that the time has come for Disney to make a new version of Sir Orfeo for this new generation. Or maybe they could just do Orpheus, and we could all compare that movie to Sir Orfeo and see how many similarities there are. I think viewing the two stories as essentially one and the same is a super interesting way to look at it, especially when we see what specific changes were made, and what ideas stayed the same. I’m not sure which one I like more (I mean, I appreciate the tragedy of Orpheus… but also I love me some happy endings), but I think looking at them next to one another can be really interesting.

Poor John!

The Miller's Tale is a hot-ass mess! Between this old man marrying an 18-year-old, butts being stuck outside of windows, and the promise of a fake flood – I couldn’t help but laugh.

I enjoyed the fact that as readers, we get to be in on the jokes that are played out. I knew this chick Alisoun was going to be unfaithful from the start; their age is the biggest indicator. She was quickly wooed by Nicholas and falls in love. I think she plays the most major role in deceit, by convincing her husband that a fake flood was headed their way so that she could spend a night in his bed with her lover.

John, poor, poor John. The only honest one in this whole charade. I can’t help but feel sorry for the guy! He tried to protect his wife from drowning, and in the end, he’s made out to be a fool! He’ll never be taken seriously again by his neighbors. Nicholas and Alisoun make everyone believe he’s crazy when they’re the ones getting it on in John’s bed!

To me, there’s no sense of true love in this story; it’s all about sex. Absolon tries to make us believe that he wants to court Alisoun, but all he’s interested in is sex. This dude got what he deserved if you ask me. Trying to kiss another man’s wife (even if she is committing adultery) is wrong! I’m glad he has to kiss ass, personally.


John is the only poor bastard I feel for in this story, even though his love for his wife was somewhat misguided, he still had good intentions. In correlation to Nicholas’ and Alisoun’s fucked up moral codes, John’s devotion to his wife is endearing!

Nevertheless, I enjoyed this story quite a bit. My favorite so far!

Classic Drunk Uncle

Let me start out by saying that the Miller's tale reminds me so much of Saturday Night Live's "Drunk Uncle" bit with Bobby Moynihan and I love it! If you haven't seen them, do yourself a favor and look up videos, they are hilarious!

I think the Miller's tale adds some humor to the story and breaks up the tale nicely even if the people may reject him telling the story out of the social status order, but oh well! The Miller really seems like he wants to basically shit on the knight's tale and give a more graphic, rude, and harsh story that shows people in a different light.

The Miller's characteristics for Alisoun were extremely different than we are used to hearing. I looked up "she is a piggesyne for any lord to leggen in his bede". "Piggesyne" seems to be a tender chicken?  He compares her with animal characteristics which is strange and maybe a little offensive. He also describes her with having a lustful eye but you can't really argue that she doesn't after she tricked her husband just so she could have a night alone with Nicholas.

The story took an unexpected turn in my opinion with all the talk about God. I liked how John thought he deserved his madness after poking around with God's privacy. I thought it was funny however that when Nicholas told John about the flood that was to come, John was completely on board with it. I did feel bad because he wanted to protect his wife, Alisoun who was going to stab him in the back anyway.

Poor Absolon, but then not really. This was a classic Pepe Le Pew and Penelope Pussycat situation. He seemed a little annoying to me when he was poking his nose where it should not have been. I guess it is sweet to have an admirer but he must have known she was married so it takes a lot of courage to snoop around her house and ask for a kiss from her. I think he got what he deserved, but Nicholas passing gas in his face? Maybe a bit much but hey it's fitting when the Miller is telling the story. 

I thought that Alisoun and Nicholas were going to be found out and that they would be the ones humiliated in front of the town, but it was poor John who got laughed at again. Not only was his wife a liar and a cheater, she flipped it around on him so that everyone would think he was crazy! I guess they weren't as dumb as I thought. 

I can dig it.

Maybe I'm a heartless asshole. Probably. Anyway, maybe I'm a heartless asshole but I have been seeing some people struggling on a moral standpoint on The Miller's Tale, and let me just tell you that this is hardly the case for me at all. First of all, dude's drunk. So for everyone feeling despair over the callousness of the story, there is a chance that the original, true, non Drunk History version of the story is a beautiful tell about forbidden courtly love and beautiful elopements.

For those of you like me who couldn't care less, taking the story at face value is hilarious, and I actually don't think it's degrading toward women at all. (That tends to be our beef with stories, right?) I mean, in this story, the men do not battle over the woman, Alison, like she is an object. In fact, ironically this is the one story where our guy, Nicholas, asks Alison for her consent. In fact, they construct the plan to fool her husband, John, together. And instead of the woman getting her face shoved in a boiling tub in a very infantalizing "this happens to women who misbehave" sort of way, she quite literally has society (or rather a member of society, Absolon) kiss her ass.

So yeah, I can dig it. I think it works as a good piece of satire. But then it begs the question...was the Knights Tale a satire as well, if Chaucer shuts it down so easily in this next story? Hmm...

Anyway, what do you all think? Are you all heartless assholes like me? (If so, welcome. There's tacos here.) Or is this story not your cup of tea? Did you interpret it in a completely different way? Let me know.


NOTE: (updated later) Upon re-reading and talking in class I realized that Alison didn't consent as much as I thought. I feel pretty bad for not seeing that. However, I do still think Alison is a spit fire who chooses to at least spend her time with this guy. Either way, she doesn't seem to dig Absolon, a guy who seems to resemble the regular courtly love stereotype to me. Don't hate me guys. Now I'm conflicted. After all, Alison still gets a pretty boy to kiss her ass. I guess new question...is anything about this story feminist at all like I originally thought? Or is this story not a true win for women?

Lewdness, Mockery, and Other Things Of Course This Miller Would Include

Maybe I just don’t get offended as easily as I think I do, but I’m??? Not??? Offended??? Let’s go through the possible things with which one might take offense:

-Claiming God told you something He didn’t: I suspect people do this all the time in real life, and I’m a million times more concerned about that than about what one horny little clerk does in one story. As for what said horny clerk (Nicholas) uses it for, well, he could’ve come up with a different plan, but this is the one he went with. Honestly, I found the setup to the story’s later antics a little dull.

-Mooning: Meh? The miller is telling this story. For those of you who haven’t read the general prologue, he tends toward lewd stories anyway. He’d probably be great at Cards Against Humanity if he understood Modern English and all the cultural references.

“Who is Michelle Obama and what is it about his armes?”

“This card has too many words. I cannot understand them alle.”

Anyway, I’m actually glad that the hair on Alison’s rear end is portrayed as normal. People have body hair! Who would’ve guessed?

-Accidental butt-kissing: It was an ACCIDENT on that dork Absolon’s part. What part of “Abak he stirte, and thoghte it was amis, / For wel he wiste a womman hath no berd; / He felte a thing al rough and long y-herd, / And seyde, ‘Fy! Allas, what have I do?’” do you not understand (3736-3739)?

-Farting: Meh? I would just repeat what I said about mooning. Sure, it’s not the kind of thing you want to read while eating, but . . . meh?

-Adultery: To the students taking ENGL222, or whichever other class might read this:

As for us, we’re more than halfway through ENGL284. We have read so many stories about people cheating on their spouses and courting people who are already married that I’d be surprised if anyone isn’t at least a little desensitized to such tales.

One more thing: Would you agree that, out of everyone in this story, the carpenter John is most similar in social status to the miller? Why do you think he told a story in which a guy like him is so blindingly trusting of his horny clerk friend? Why not make a fool of the educated clerk? My guess is the miller is making a bit of fun of his upper-class and better-educated travel companions. Sure, Nicholas might be clever, but he is committing adultery (which they all would have claimed to disapprove of) and he gets his butt burned with a hot poker. Then there’s Absolon, who’s just a doof throughout this entire story (though burning Nicholas’s butt with a hot poker was a quality move there).

Considering all this, would you want to hear more stories from the miller? I might, just as along as I’m not eating while listening!

Chaucer, Geoffrey. The Canterbury Tales. Edited by V.A. Kolve and Glending Olson, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2005.

I pledge that I have neither given nor received any unauthorized aid on this assignment.

Miranda A. Barrientos

The Mill of Lies

The scene opens, a drunk person appears and is telling people a story that will supposedly surpass the Knight's Tale and I am hooked... then it became pushy and my 21st cenutry, feminist brain just doesn't know how to handle something that is considered romantic that is essentially this:

(Scary, I know.)  So naturally, we have another affair and we're back to the standard "How to Get Away with Cheating on Your Husband" type story.  It truly amazes me how cunning and...extra the characters are with their plans.  Seeing the secrets of the world is a big thing, I'm just happy no one got caught and had their face shoved into a boiling vat of water.  While I can understand the religious tides dictating a person's life during the time, how can someone be so gullible to just accept that your clerk can be closer to your wife than you??

I am a fan, however, of some dank revenge.  Absolon was so kind in trying to win Alison's heart and not just forcing her to stay in his presence, and was met with a whole lot of BS.  Glad he branded his revenge into the ass of Nicholas.  But of course, poor John was made into a laughing stock and humiliated as well as thoroughly cheated on.  RIP, here lies John's dignity.

Just some more shrugs.  I'm not sure how I feel with it all.  I just expect too much from these characters.

A List of Questions...

Reading the Miller’s tale was…interesting. Also confusing, due to the middle English. I’ll be honest, I skimmed the middle English from the previous stories due to the time-crunch I’ve been struggling with lately, but this story definitely had some confusing points either way. I’m still a little unsure if the carpenter’s student, the clerk, and Nicholas are the same person (all mentioned near the beginning of story, somewhere before line 3220). I’m also confused as to who was this jealous-person of Alison (carpenters wife) mentioned line 3224 (was it the carpenter or Nicholas?).

 I don’t know exactly what Chaucer was talking about with the church scene in lines 3306-3338, but I did recognize it’s main purpose was to introduce the priest-assistant Absolon. A person who many of my questions are about. At line 3350, it seems Absolon won’t take offerings from…wives in-general due to his love for Alison? But I don’t know if that’s correct, or if it is, why. I’m also confused to his motives throughout the whole story…it seems she denies him the first time (or he realizes he’s chances suck) around line 3387 (pg78) after he sneaks under their (carpenter/Alison) bedroom window and sings his love for her with her husband THERE. Then later, he sneaks under their window again (this time when he thinks husband is away) believing that he WILL kiss her. Why?? Hasn’t she already denied him? What makes him think she would do this? Then after she tells him she loves another (second time?), he realizes he’s kissed her arse, and says he’s done with her (line 3757)…he comes back AGAIN with his mother’s gold ring to try and get another kiss (promising ring in return). What??? Why? Not only is she a MARRIED woman, but she also says she loves another and has mistreated/tricked him. I don’t understand Absolon much at all…he’s supposed to be a godly/church person too. Wouldn’t he be looked down upon in the church for stealing/pursuing/loving a married woman of another man?

Then I’m confused as to the plan that Nicholas and Alison create to trick the carpenter. I understand that Nicholas stayed in his room alone until John (carpenter) forced his way in, thinking that he’s gone mad from his astrology. I also understand that he tells in (in private/secret) about his prophecy about a Noah’s-Ark type flood coming on Monday. But what exactly does he say to do to keep them three safe? It was something about hanging tubs (dough kneading troughs specifically) from the ceilings so the servants wouldn’t see (for the purpose of floating  in flood)…then something about taking an axe and cutting a hole in the garden wall…? The lines I’m referring to are 3569-3572, if someone would like to try and explain. Is line 3632 trying to say the carpenter sent the servants to London (with excuse for his business trip in his place) to keep them safe from flood? Then I’m completely confused as to the order of events and/or what actually happens in lines 3816-3825…

I have more questions, but if these could be answered (to any degree) that would be really helpful for my comprehension of this story. Overall though, I did find the story entertaining. I just wish they got to the point a little more often. Some of the descriptions in the plot seemed unnecessarily long.