An Analyis of the Conventions of Courtly Love Within the Miller's Tale and Morte Darthur

An Analyis of the Conventions of Courtly Love Within The Miller's Tale and Morte Darthur While both “Morte Darthur” and “The Miller's Tale” display some characteristics of a satirical approach in which human vices are attacked in a whimsical manner through irony, comedy, and folly, they are actually quite different in their literary genre and style. “Morte Darthur”, an adventurous tale with an imaginary setting that perfectly idealizes the chivalrous knight-hero and his noble deeds done for the love of his lady, is a classic example of a tragic medieval romance. A fabliau, of which “The Miller's Tale” is an example, takes a comical approach with the typically large cast of colorful characters: the blissfully ignorant husband, the foolish Casanova, the insatiable young wife, and the avaricious clery members whose disingenuous interests lie in only satisfying themselves. Although both tales utilize the classical aspects of courtly love, the medieval romance glorifies the devotional characteristics, while “The Miller's Tale” focuses on subject matter that is overtly sexual in nature. This approach is typical of the fabliau-style that deals with the seedier elements of courtly love traditionally left out by writers of more elevated genres. John Edwin Wells, in his 1916 Manual of the Writings in Middle English, “concluded that the fabliaux's impropriety led to their rapid disappearance” (Furrow). From a modern perspective, it reads like a “grunge romance” that relies on puns and word manipulation to achieve it's desired “shock” effect. Although both Chaucer and Malory use satirical elements to demonstrate the absurdity of implementing the contradictory, idyllic, and impractical conventions expected within courtly love on an everyday basis, they do so in a very different manner. This paper will use specific aspects of courtly love to provide a comparison of each literary genre and illustrate how the use of traditional courtly love conventions used within these two

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