Canterbury Tales :: Essays Papers

Canterbury Tales With the presidential election at its boiling point, many try to provide their own joke every now and then. Late night comedians such as David Letterman and Jay Leno try to spit out a new joke during their ten-minute spiel, and sometimes one can assume that they are getting even with the election process. Throughout the one-hour show, the comedians do their best to trick both the viewers and all those involved with the election process by having people act out scenes, or imitate one of the presidents. Also, as just about every other comedian tries to achieve, he or she throws in a dirty joke about the president or his family to tie it all up right at the end of their spiel. These three aspects of comedy—revenge, trickery, and infidelity—can all be found in The Miller’s Tale. The Miller’s Tale encompasses a dark and infernal level of comedy, similar to that of comedy today. In The Miller’s Tale, Nicholas, a clerk, is a student of astronomy and of young women, who represents the dark and infernal level of comedy where â€Å"love cannot dwell in such society; everyone is fundamentally along, though hypocrisy and self-serving may give the appearance of friendship† (Cowan, 11). Nicholas lives with a wealthy carpenter named John, who’s an old man who protects his beautiful wife, Alison, as if it were flies on scat. In the infernal state â€Å"the pretty girl†¦ is either absent or, if she does enter the boundaries of this dark region, victimized† (11). Alison is caught between three disrespectful men. Her husband, John, won’t let his eye off his young and zealous wife; Nicholas always becomes as sly as a snake, wanting to make love to her, and trying to outwit his friend, John; the carpenters wife, fancied by Absalom, a parish clerk who has none of Nicholas’ attractiveness, but an eye for the ladies of the to wn. Although marriage is very rare in the infernal state, â€Å"old husbands tyrannize young wives, spouses are unfaithful, maidens are linked by opportunism to unsuitable mates†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (12). The old husband, John, tyrannizes his wife day after day with his over-protective personality,while she is unfaithful to him by making love and flirting with other men. Trickery is a key part in The Miller’s Tale, and found in the infernal state: â€Å"deception and disguise, characterizing marks of comedy, are used in infernal society for the purpose of gaining advantage, usually to the harm of others† (12).