Comparative Character Analysis: Canterbury Tales - Knight vs Miller

This essay provides a character analysis of the Knight and the Miller from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. The Knight is portrayed as a chivalrous and honorable soldier, while the Miller is depicted as a boisterous and often immoral figure. The essay compares their professions, social standings, and relationships with God, highlighting the contrast between the upper and lower classes in medieval society. The analysis explores how their moral characters are presented through their actions and interactions within the tales. Furthermore, the essay examines the influence of the historical and cultural context on the development of each character, reflecting the social tensions and religious beliefs prevalent during the time. The Knight embodies the ideals of the noble class, while the Miller represents the common man, exposing the societal conflicts and moral ambiguities of the era.

Running head: CANTERBURY TALES CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Canterbury Tales Character Analysis
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1CANTERBURY TALES CHARACTER ANALYSIS
The Canterbury Tales is a collection of almost 24 stories that is written in by Geoffrey
Chaucer during the years from 1387-1400. These tales are presented in the form of the
account by groups of pilgrims as they set out on their travel from London to Canterbury to
see the shrine of Saint Thomas Becket in the cathedral (Seymour, 2017). In the Canterbury
Tales, the Knight is present in almost all the stories, if not present but at the very least, he has
been mentioned. He has participated in many holy crusades and he is known to be a brave,
chivalrous and honourable soldier. The Miller is a huge man who weighs almost 230 pounds,
has red hair and big wart on his nose. His physical character can be described as being loud,
foul mouthed and bawdy. He is known to be a typical representation of a greedy person.
The Knight, as can be seen from his name, is a soldier who has participated in
numerous crusades and displays many traits that, for the readers, may seem too good to be
true; a prime example of a true gentleman that is rarely found in reality. The readers learn of
the knight’s accomplishments and his importance when the narrator says in the book that “A
knight ther was, and that a worthy man,/ To ryden out, he loved chivalry,/Trouthe and honor,
fredom and curteisye.”. In the tales, the Miller is known to be a weary working man, who is
also a drunk and an oaf, and he also verbally assaults many of the characters in the tales. He
can be seen as being a hardworking man who is just trying to make his way in life. With this
hardworking becoming a commonality, he falls prey to the pitfalls of humankind (Grabski,
2016).
Through the narrator’s description of the character of the Knight, it is easy to see that
he is valued to be the most honourable of the group. The Miller, however, is described by the
Chaucer as “An honest miller hath a golden thumb,” because he is also known to be a big
cheat. He fools his customers by placing his thumb on the scale to make them pay more for
the grain or corn they buy. The Miller is portrayed as a representation of the negative
stereotypical version of a lower-class man.

2CANTERBURY TALES CHARACTER ANALYSIS
Through finding about the Knight’s repeated bravery during the many crusades he’s
fought, the readers also get to know that how dedicated he is to Christianity. Since the
crusades were all religious wars, it proves that the knight was not just a perfect gentleman,
but also a model Christian. He served his God by fighting bravely in the crusades and is now
on the way to pay homage to the Christian Saint in Caterbury. The Miller seems to enjoy
overturning all types of conventions as he tells tales that can be considered somewhat
blasphemous as he ridicules the religious clerks and women. His relationship with God seems
to not be as strong as the Knight’s because of his indulgence in all things immoral.
Through the Miller’s tale, the Chaucer displays one specific immoral act done by the
character, which is indulgence in sexual sin or lust (Jawad, 2018). The Miller’s tale displays
many key elements of immorality that existed commonly during the Middle Ages. The
Knight is one individual in the tales that seems to fulfil all the principles of being an effective
Medieval English Knight, portraying generosity, respect, honesty and basic courtesy to every
that he encounters. The knight is also described as being one of the most noble of all the
pilgrims.
At the time that these tales were written, the feudal English society used well-defined
estates to categorize the people. New classes were emerging when the Chaucer started writing
The Canterbury Tales, so the readers not only find members of the traditional categories of
people, but also various members of the mercantile and intellectual classes. The Canterbury
Tales document many of the social tensions that were present during that time, especially the
class between the popular categories of the estates of people. The Knight’s character is
developed in order to portray the perfect soldier and his interruption by the Miller gives us a
clash between the soldier class and the common man.

3CANTERBURY TALES CHARACTER ANALYSIS
References:
Grabski, Maciej. "Multiple negation in Chaucer’s" The Canterbury Tales" as a marker of
social status. A pilot study." “Variability in English across time and space”, eds. E.
Waniek-Klimczak, A. Cichosz, Ser.“Linguistics. Phonetics, Dialectology, Historical
Linguistics”, Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, Łódź 2016;. Wydawnictwo
Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego, 2016.
Jawad, Noor Kadhoum. "Geoffrey Chaucer’s “The Miller’s Tale”: Fabliau." DIRASAT
TARBAWIYA 11.42 (2018): 489-496.
Seymour, Michael C. A Catalogue of Chaucer Manuscripts: Volume Two: The Canterbury
Tales. Routledge, 2017.