Miller's Tale Conclusion and Pardoner's Introduction
The Miller's Tale: Undercutting Pretension and Social Conventions
The Miller's Tale serves to undercut pretension and the idea of the ideal, often represented by the Knight's Tale.
It challenges idealized portrayals of characters, contrasting with the Knight's Tale where desires and emotions are suppressed.
The tale asserts that "people are bodies" and exposes natural processes to social conventions.
The inclusion of a fart is not merely crude but plays a significant role in the narrative, suggesting the unexpected depth and sophistication of the Miller's story, contrary to expectations of a "big crude tale" from a "big crude guy."
The "Fart" as a Social Indicator: The audibility of a fart can subtly reveal social comfort levels; a suppressed fart indicates a desire to impress, highlighting the tension between natural bodily functions and social decorum.
Absalon's Courtship and the First Prank
Absalon's Character: An annoying, self-important clerk who believes he is skilled in courtly love conventions but is fundamentally in the "wrong poem" or world for such ideals.
Allison's Rejection: Allison dismisses Absalon, referring to him as a "jackass" and indicating she has another lover.
The Kiss: Absalon requests a single kiss, lying that he will leave afterwards.
The Prank: Allison, with Nicholas in her bedroom, turns to Nicholas and reveals her plan for a joke. In the pitch-dark night, she sticks out her exposed rear end from the window.
Absalon's Reaction: Absalon, expecting a romantic kiss, "savoringly" kisses her naked anus. He realizes his mistake when he feels the "thing all rough and long hair too" and concludes, "A woman has no beard." This moment is highlighted as a great line in English literature, further emphasized by the crude reality of the time (lack of Brazilian wax).
Absalon's Transformation and Vengeance
Love Quenched: Immediately after the kiss, Absalon's "hot love was all cold and quenched." This is attributed to his physical contact with a real female body, which paradoxically dissipates his abstract, idealized love. He becomes "all healed of his malady" and anti-sexual.
Seeking Vengeance: Absalon vows to give his soul to Satan for revenge, prioritizing vengeance over even owning the entire town.
The Coulter: He goes to Master Gervais, a blacksmith (associated with the devil in folklore), and borrows a heated "coulter" – a large, curved, serrated blade used for plowing, symbolizing a violent dismemberment tool.
The Second Prank and Nicholas's Punishment
Absalon's Return: Absalon returns to Allison's window, promising a golden ring for another kiss, hoping to lure her face or rear end out again.
Nicholas's Intervention: Nicholas decides to participate, sticking his own rear end out the window.
The Fart: Nicholas releases a "thunderous fart," serving as a locator for Absalon in the dark.
Nicholas's Injury: Absalon, guided by the fart, severely burns Nicholas's rear end with the glowing hot coulter, perhaps branding or shearing him.
Significance of Nicholas's Fart: This act, copying Allison's trick crudely, leads directly to his punishment. It signifies a loss of his "artfulness" and cleverness, transforming him from a planner of elaborate fictions to someone resorting to a simple, crude insult.
John's Fate and the Unveiling of the Plot
John's Suspension: While the pranks unfold, John, Allison's husband, remains suspended in his tub in the barn, a brilliant narrative device keeping him out of the main action. He has been in "suspension" literally, just as the story's overall plot was in suspension.
The Fall: Upon Nicholas's cries of warning (mistaking the hot coulter for Noah's Flood), John cuts down his tub, falls, breaks his arm, and faints.
Public Mockery: Neighbors rush in and mock John, believing he is mad for fearing a flood and hanging tubs. They laugh at him, effectively labeling him "quite mad throughout the town." He is punished by physical injury and public humiliation.
Missing Information: The town remains unaware of the true reason for John's actions, and he himself doesn't know his wife has cheated, thus not fully realizing he has been "cuckolded."
The Miller's Judgments and Punishments
Allison: Her punishment is light – she is "screwed" (has sex with Nicholas), described as a "throwaway act" without deeper meaning. Her marital relationship will suffer but not end.
John: Receives more severe punishment for his transgressions (jealousy, gullibility) – a broken arm, unconsciousness, and public mockery. However, he is spared the knowledge of his cuckoldry.
Nicholas: Receives the most severe physical punishment ("will never sit down again," in agony). This is due to his more elaborate deception and crude copying of Allison's trick, abandoning his earlier cleverness for a simple fart.
Absalon: The most severe punishment is implied: he "goes to hell." His encounter with the blacksmith (a devil figure in folklore) and his explicit pledge of his soul to Satan mark him as damned. He physically disappears from the narrative after his act of vengeance.
Miller's Non-Traditional Judgment: The Miller delivers judgments that are not explicitly traditional Christian moralizing but arise from the characters' actions and motivations. He challenges expectations, asserting that even a lower-middle-class character can tell a "smart and sophisticated" tale with serious, albeit implied, moral dimensions, breaking through aristocratic literary norms.
Introduction to the Pardoner's Tale
The Pardoner's Role: An official church position, selling indulgences to mitigate sins and hasten salvation – a "get out of jail free card" for purgatory.
Pardoner's Transgressions: He preaches and absolves sins, roles explicitly forbidden to pardoners, thus "transgressing" his allotted societal role.
General Prologue Description:
Companionship: Travels with the Summoner, with whom he sings a "love song" that critics have interpreted as having sexual undertones.
Physical Appearance: "Gazes like a hair," thin hair (like "flaps"), refuses to wear a hat (unashamed), smooth, no beard, "voice high as a goat's." This physical description leads the narrator to speculate he is "a gelding or a mare" ( ext{intersex}, hermaphrodite, or multiply ext{-}gendered).
Possessions: Carries pardons "hot from Rome" and fake relics (e.g., a piece of Christ's veil), highlighting the fraudulent nature of his dealings. Relics, though cherished conceptually (like family heirlooms), are easily faked in his possession.
Narrator's View: Despite his falseness, the narrator somewhat admires him as a "noble ecclesiastical church" figure with a "beautiful voice" and singing ability.
Transition to the Pardoner's Tale in the Narrative
Host's Reaction to the Physician's Tale: The Host, trying to impress the upper class, overreacts to the "sad and miserable" Physician's Tale (about a judge assaulting a young woman who then kills herself), feigning distress and demanding a "merry tale" to cure his melancholy. His language reveals his lack of understanding and crude use of oaths.
Host's Insult to the Pardoner: The Host disrespectfully addresses the Pardoner as "Hey, gay boy" and demands a "frivolous" or "dirty" joke.
The Pardoner's Response: The Pardoner plays it cool, agreeing by "Saint Ronan" (a potential insult to the Host), but states he needs food and drink first.
Gentle Folk's Intervention: The "gentle folk" (rich travelers) immediately object, demanding a "moral thing" rather than "dirty jokes" to gain "wisdom." This suggests their preconceived notions about the Pardoner's character and social standing.
Pardoner's Compliance and Retaliation: The Pardoner agrees to tell an "honest" tale after some thought, implying that his subsequent story will be a calculated retaliation against both the Host and the expectations of the other pilgrims, using their demand for a moral tale against them. His prologue and tale are expected to reveal this retaliatory motive.