Bloom's Literary Themes - ymerleksi - home

“The Miller’s Tale” 121
by Nicholas, Alison, and Absolon, as when Nicholas and Alison are
described as making “melodye” (i.e., having sex; l. 466) not only in
John’s own bed (a violation of the taboo against mistreating a host and
husband) but also while friars in a nearby church are literally singing
praises of God (l. 469–70). At that very same moment, of course,
Absolon is also up and about and is full of renewed hopes of adulterous
success with John’s wife. The language he uses in attempting to
court Alison (ll. 512–21) is full of ironic echoes of the Biblical Song
of Songs [B&G 498, 507, 550, 553, 615, 626], and it is also a parody
of the language of courtly love [B&G 602], but the irony of his
conduct would be perfectly obvious from one line alone: the line in
which he begs Alison to commit adultery “For Jesus love and for the
love of me” (l. 531). Alison herself, of course, also take’s God’s name
in vain (l. 523), and she is also either very cynical or very naïve when,
explaining to Absolon why she cannot grant him his wishes, she says,
“I love another, and elles I were to blame” (l. 524). Her threat to cast
a stone at Absolon is an ironic reminder of the story of the Biblical
woman taken in adultery ( John 8:7; B&G 615, 626), while Absolon’s
kneeling position as he engages in his misdirected kiss (l. 537) not
only symbolizes his idolatry of Alison but also puts him in a posture
more appropriate for worship of God or the Virgin Mary [B&G 574].
When he inadvertently kisses Alison’s “naked ers [i.e., arse]” (l. 548),
he unwittingly engages in an act associated in the middle ages with
worship of the devil [B&G 558]—a fact that makes his later vicious
anger (“ ‘My soule betake I unto Satanas’; l. 564) all the more significant.
As if to underline all the ironic points he is making, Chaucer
fills this whole section of the tale with numerous explicit religious
references (e.g., ll. 557, 581–83, 585, 596, 606). These come to a point
when Absolon, right before he scalds Nicholas on (and also apparently
in) the rear, once more takes God’s name in vain (l. 609). Nicholas’s
scream for water is, typically, accompanied by ironic profanity (“ ‘for
Goddes herte!’ ” (l. 629), and the emphasis on water at the end of the
tale has been linked once more to the need all the characters exhibit
for both literal and figurative baptism [B&G 512].
The Miller himself, of course, has no lofty moral purpose in telling
his tale; for him its main function is to shock, titillate, and entertain—
and perhaps also to mock the Knight, the Reeve, and also the Clerk.
The Miller, in his own way, is just as much a violator of various social
and religious taboos as any of the characters he describes, and in fact