Comparing Knight’s Tale and Miller’s Tale: Themes and Style
Differences Between The Miller’s Tale and The Knight’s Tale
Society in That Period of Tales
“The Knight’s Tale”: Love, loyalty, and battle are placed in the chivalric romance genre. The courtly romance of the tale concerns the mythical kingdom of Theseus, wealthy rulers, and pagan gods. This tale’s world is built around honor and justice. Ending: the love that comes at a price and preserves nobility should not be denied.
“The Miller’s Tale”: The character of the miller is vulgar and robs his customers. Consequently, he is not as admirable as that of the Knight. “The Miller’s Tale” is a parody of “The Knight’s Tale” and is part of the fabliau genre.
Prologue
In “The Miller’s Tale” prologue, the Miller insists on telling the tale before the Monk. In “The Knight’s Tale,” there is no prologue.
Major Themes and Plot
“The Knight’s Tale”: It is told by a distinguished person, and its themes are universal: the relationship of individuals to providence, fortune, and free will. Characters use noble courtship and gallantry. The men anticipate a competition and fight for her.
“The Miller’s Tale”: It is a comic fabliau told by a drunken man. It is generally characterized by an excessiveness of sexual and dirty vulgarity. They are dishonest and are not gallant at all. They just want to have sex.
Stylistic Features
Romance/The Fabliau
“The Knight’s Tale” has been written to be clearly recognizable as a romance, while “The Miller’s Tale” is equally identifiable as a fabliau.
Writing Style
“The Knight’s Tale”: It has more to do with the Romance tradition. Moreover, the setting is grandiose and regal. Beauty and majesty are prevalent throughout the tale. Moreover, it tries to find deeper meaning in the world, and thanks to this, it has had a great impact on society.
“The Miller’s Tale”: It is simply a medieval tale that has no further meaning and is simply told to be heard. The subject matter is barbaric and cruel: characters fart, have sex, and trick each other, and so on. Thus, we can say that the story is a classic example of the idea of “fabliau justice.”
The Poetic Tone
The rhythm that is used in “The Miller’s Tale” is quick; all the events are represented one after the other. In “The Knight’s Tale,” the events are shown descriptively and slowly in a particular rhyme.
“The Miller’s Tale” is told in verse with rhyming couplets. Most of the lines are ten syllables, although eight is the usual number for fabliau. The ten syllables of a line are divided into five groups constituted of two syllables named as feet. Every line’s foot begins with an unaccented syllable, and an accented one follows it. Chaucer’s basic structure is composed of five-stress iambic lines although, owing to the syllabic endings, a large proportion of words are natural trochees (shoures soote, tender croppes…). This, together with the feminine rhymes, often produces the effect of trochaic rhythm. However, sometimes the lines are not composed of ten syllables; they can, for instance, lack a light syllable after the second stressed syllable. The poet sometimes tends to omit the unstressed syllable after the caesural pause.
Narrator
“The Knight’s Tale”: The narrator portrays perfectly the character of the knight. There is only one woman’s love to fight for, and neither of the knight’s hearts goes away from their passion for her. It also shows bravery and devotion. It presents the ideal of one true, romantic love.
“The Miller’s Tale”: It’s a tale of scandalous amusement about lust, competition, and trickery. It is vulgar and basic in comparison to the Knight’s story. The narrator tells us that Miller believes women to be sexual beings. It demonstrates Chaucer’s use of comic inconsistency and incredible neatness.
Characters/Characterization/Behavior
Characters
“The Knight’s Tale”: Characters are proper and elegant in their speech and actions. They represent the perfect stereotype of warriors and princesses.
“The Miller’s Tale”: Characters are crude and sometimes naïve. They show their personality traits, but they’re not perfect. For example, John is described as ignorant and jealous in trying to keep a wife like Alison.
Characterization
“The Knight’s Tale”: Descriptions are less detailed. For example, Palamon is courtly, romantic, and deeply idealistic (“to be false or a traitor to me your cousin and one who is sworn deeply to be your brother; as each of us is pledged that never, until death may part us two, even if we die by torture, shall either of us hinder the other in love or in any case, dear brother; but that you should faithfully further me in every case, as I shall further you.”1128)
“The Miller’s Tale”: Characters are described in more detail, and it is a comic situation where deeper meanings are irrelevant.
Behavior
“The Knight’s Tale”: They think that God controls everything in their lives; the Greek gods intervene in human affairs (The fairness of that lady, whom I see yonder in the garden roaming back and forth, is the cause of all my crying and pains. I know not whether she is a woman or a goddess; but in truth, I believe it is Venus)
“The Miller’s Tale”: People take the responsibility for whatever happens to them.
Imagery
“The Knight’s Tale’s” imagery is very traditional; the woman is compared to such things as flowers, for example. He also compares her to things like an angel.
In “The Miller’s Tale,” he uses animals and wild imagery to describe Alison. He also compares her to a weasel, a mouse, and a bird. The miller may have used unconventional imagery, but it still has the same effect as the knight’s imagery.
Scenification of Love
Men
In “The Knight’s Tale,” love is a very emotional feeling, an idealized emotion. The male characters want to marry Emily and love her for eternity. They suffer from his beloved in silence, and their destiny is decided by God and coincidence.
In “The Miller’s Tale,” love is the synonym of pleasure and enjoyment by having sex. In this story, love is instinctual and basic. The only aim is to get pleasure and enjoyment by having sex. Nicholas is a man of action who wins Alison over with a romantic language, while his foil doesn’t get any prize as he is a courtly lover.
Women
In “The Knight’s Tale,” Emily passively causes all the time the fight between Arcite and Palamon, but she does not love any of them, and she doesn’t want to marry. Meanwhile, in “The Miller’s Tale,” Alison is directly responsible for the fight between Absalon and Nicholas. She laughs after tricking Absalon into a very unconventional sort of kiss.
In “The Miller’s Tale,” it seems that women are used for only one thing: just for “having fun” with them. However, in “The Knight’s Tale,” they are somewhat accepted for the type of person they are; they are valued.
Courtly Love
“The Knight’s Tale” is told based on courtly love to such an extent that we can say that it is an exaggeration of a typical romance. Emily declares that she does not wish to have a husband. Men do not take into account her wish, and he is bound to marry a knight whom does not love.
In “The Miller’s Tale,” the idea of courtly love is thrown out of the tale. They are less focused on love and are much blunter about what they want in women. Alison is portrayed more as a sex object with very little power rather than being treated as a worthy lover to be with.
The End of the Battle in the Love Triangle
In “The Knight’s Tale,” although Arcite wins the battle, Palamon marries Emily: the two knights get what they want from his respective goddess.
In “The Miller’s Tale,” both the male characters get a punishment: Absolon is farted upon, and Nicholas is marked out.