The Miller’s Tale
“Estates”: Social class: Medieval England divided society into three classes or “estates”: Nobility (rulers and land owners), Clergy, Laborers*.
The Knight tells the first tale – because he is of the highest estate. He tells a Classical Greek story refigured into a Medieval Romance – along the lines of Sir Gawain And The Green Knight. The story is a long, learned, complex, highly symbolic and philosophical treatise on courtly love, chivalry, and the relationship between Fortune and Divine Providence. It is a Neo-Platonic meditation on the need to put spiritual interests before physical blah blah blah.
The Host then calls on The Monk, a member of the next estate, to tell a tale, but The Monk is interrupted by The Miller, who is somewhat drunk and clearly of the lowest estate. Already, before even telling his own tale and only one tale into the pilgrimage, social order has been disrupted.
The Miller’s tale then satirizes The Knight’s tale, as it:
a) focuses on the lowest estate (critique of social class)
b) inverts our concepts of courtly love by highlighting full physical sexuality, rather than “romance” or The Form of the Good (critique of courtly love): unabashedly sexualizes the woman, Alison: she’s in bed, not on a pedestal, enjoying sex, not love
c) satirizes the Church in Absolom, the Parish Clerk; essentially tells him to “kiss my ass” (critique of religious hypocrisy)
d) satirizes those in power: the failure of the carpenter to control his wife, Alison (critique of power, in general)
e) satirizes simplistic understanding of the Bible: “Water!” and the overly pious, who miss what’s right under their nose (critique of literalist theology)
Centrally, though, realize:
a) This is the first time a woman’s sexuality has been treated as, essentially, natural, normal
b) This is the first time in this class the woman has come out “on top”
c) This is the first time a woman of her social class has been given this kind of attention and respect
d) **Those who are punished are punished not because of sin but because they have attempted to control someone else; this is a critique of power, and of patriarchal power, at that.
Finally, it’s brilliant: the tale seems to be going nowhere but “Water!” brings it all together in a means that is genius and simple: the Knight’s overly complex, overly educated treatise is less harmonious and elegant than this R rated, lower class fabliau.