Bloom's Literary Themes - ymerleksi - home

“The Miller’s Tale” 119
could mean “near, at hand; handy, ready or skilful with the hand;
pleasant in dealing with others; courteous, gracious; ‘nice’ ” [V134].
Nicholas violates numerous common Christian taboos: committing a
kind of idolatry in his fevered pleas to Alison; taking God’s name in
vain in highly inappropriate circumstances (“ ‘Lemman, love me al at
atones [i.e., at once], / Or I wol die, also God me save’ ”; ll. 94–95); and
misusing his obvious intelligence for improper purposes (thus abusing
his God-given gift of reason). He is indeed the embodiment of intellectual
pride (the worst kind of pride; see V31), and when Alison
quickly promises to commit adultery with him, we cannot help but
notice the extremely ironic terms in which her promise is phrased: she
swears an oath “by Saint Thomas of Kent” (one of the greatest of all
Christian martyrs; see V158) that she will be at Nicholas’s “commandement”
(thus violating, it goes without saying, numerous commandments
from God; ll. 105–06). The fact that she is then immediately
described as heading for “the parrissh chirche, / Criste’s owene werkes
for to wirche” (ll. 121–22)—a phrase that refers to “liturgical worship”
[V160]—is just more ironic icing on the cake. Nicholas and Alison
may not yet be fully guilty of physically violating the taboo against
adultery (although both have already committed adultery in their
hearts), but both are clearly transgressing taboos against hypocrisy
and sacrilegious conduct. They assume that they can keep their sinful
plans secret from John, but those plans are, of course, already apparent
to God, from whom no taboo behavior (or even any taboo thoughts
or impulses) can ever be hidden.
Perhaps the most obviously ironic character in the entire tale,
however, is the prim, affected dandy named Absolon, whose very
name and long, flowing hair clearly allude to the Old Testament figure
Absolom, who revolted against his father in the Bible and suffered
severe punishment as a result. Absolom’s rebellion was long considered
a symbol of any rejection of God, and Chaucer’s Absolon is clearly a
breaker of many social and religious taboos. He is, of course, another
prospective adulterer (he courts Alison far more flagrantly than Nicholas
does; ll. 170–83), and in fact he considers himself—despite his high
voice and effeminate appearance—quite a ladies’ man. He scopes out
women while ostensibly serving as a minor cleric in the local church
(l. 156), and various details of his grooming, costuming, physiognomy,
and behavior link him to such flaws as pride, pomp, lechery, luxury,
deceit, and fleshly excess [B&G 483, 495, 522; V162–63; V166]. His