Make up Blog : "The Miller's Prologue and Tale"

“The Miller’s Prologue and Tale” was on of my favorite readings we did this semester.  It was absolutely hilarious and entertaining from start to finish. The prologue sets the stage for the craziness of the tale.  The Miller is drunk and both the Reeve (a carpenter) and the narrator himself are cautious of the tale the Miller is about to tell.  Though one comes from a character in the story and the other warning comes from the narrator, both serve as a warning to the reader that they are about to experience something a little crazy and unusual.  That is just what “The Miller’s Tale” is. 

            Who does not love a good cuckold story?  The tale seems to be mocking bad/stupid relationships and how they never work out.  John (the carpenter and his young wife Alison, Alison and Nicholas’s lustful desires and adulterous affair, and Absolon (the singing goofball) with his hopeless crush on Alison, all these affairs smack into a brick wall and end badly.

            I really love Nicholas’s character.  He is just a guy trying to “get some” and put together an incredible plan to set up a special night for him and his lady, that is not actually his special lady. I loved how Nicholas played crazy and got John to buy into his scheme of a massive flood coming.  You can’t help but sympathize with John his foolishness is funny and innocent.

            The most hilarious part of the story, one of the many hilarious parts though, is when Absolon comes along and tries to woo Alison.  She rejects him and is really a bitch to him when she disrespect and make a joke of him by sticking her butt out the window.  I loved it when Absolon got pissed off and came back and brands Nicholas.  “Of gooth the skin an hande-brede aboute; the hote cultour brende so his toute that for the smert he wende for to die; as he were wood foer wo he gan to cry, “Help! Water! Help,forGoddes herte.” (page 279  It’s a hysterical ending to a story that was just crazy from the get-go.