The Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Plot Summary
- Cast of Characters
- An Analysis of Major Characters
- Symbols and Themes
-
Summary and Analysis
- The General Prologue
- The Knight's Tale
- The Miller's Tale
- The Reeve's Tale
- The Cook's Tale
- The Man of Law's Tale
- The Wife of Bath's Tale
- The Friar's Tale
- The Summoner's Tale
- The Clerk's Tale
- The Merchant's Tale
- The Squire's Tale
- The Franklin's Tale
- The Physician's Tale
- The Pardoner's Tale
- The Shipman's Tale
- The Prioress' Tale
- The Tale of Sir Topas
- The Tale of Melibee
- The Monk's Tale
- The Nun's Priest's Tale
- The Second Nun's Tale
- The Canon Yeoman's Prologue and Tale
- The Manciple's Prologue and Tale
- The Parson's Tale
- Chaucer's Retraction
- Significant Quotations
- Key Facts
- Points to Ponder
- Discussion Questions
- Take The Quiz
- Further Reading
- Flashcards
- Biography of Geoffrey Chaucer
The Reeve's Tale
The Miller’s tale featured a carpenter as the dupe, and the reeve decides to get his revenge by telling a story about a crooked miller. In his story, a miller named Symkyn is known for cheating his customers, but people avoid challenging him about these thefts because of his violent and volatile nature. Symkyn is married to the daughter of the town parson, and received a large dowry for marrying her. Symkyn grinds the corn and wheat for a school in Canterbury. When the school’s manciple falls ill, Symkyn begins cheating the school even more than he had been cheating it. This upsets two of the students at the school, Alayn and John. They ask their headmaster if they can be the ones to take the corn to the miller, thinking that together they can carefully watch Symkyn and avoid being cheated.
When they get to the mill, Alayn and John watch Symkyn grinding the corn. He realizes that they are trying to ensure that he does not cheat them, so Symkyn unties their horse and it wanders away. When the students go to look for their horse, Symkyn steals flour from them. Symkyn has his wife bake a cake with the stolen flour. The students find their horse, but night has fallen and they stay at Symkyn’s house. Alayn seduces Symkyn’s daughter Malyne. Likewise, John tricks Symkyn’s wife into his bed by moving a cradle at the foot of her bed to the foot of his bed. However, in the morning, the moved cradle leads Alayn to crawl into the wrong bed, where, thinking the miller is John, Alayn boasts about having sex with the Malyne all night. Symkyn jumps up and punches Alayn in the nose, then falls into the bed where John and his wife are asleep. Symkyn’s wife tries to help her...
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